Our Mission

Our mission is to provide summer respite visits to Canada for children in Belarus who live in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster; to send humanitarian aid to the children and their families; to provide educational programs that will help these children and their country.

About OTTAWA VALLEY AID FOR CHERNOBYL CHILDREN

Through our fundraising activities, we provide summer respite visits for Belarusian children by collaborating with counterpart charities in Belarus to arrange the visits. OVACC provides the transportation to Canada for the children and a chaperone/translator, but Canadian host families are responsible for all expenses during the respite visit. OVACC members have visited Belarus (completely at their own personal expense) to gauge the effectiveness of OVACC programs, and to determine what additional needs could best be served by the charity. OVACC has no paid personnel and no physical assets - everything is done by volunteers and 100% of the funds we raise go toward OVACC programs and expenses; our financial statements are available at the Canada Revenue Agency web site. Our fundraising activities are done within the local community, and include a spaghetti supper, catering activities, craft sales, scrapbooking events, etc. OVACC does not employ professional fundraisers.