The Canada Caribbean Development Group (CCDG) organizes and facilitates groups of volunteers in travelling to Kingston, Jamaica, to participate in a different kind of holiday, a humanitarian journey that some participants have described as "life changing."
Each trip, which usually lasts about nine days, centres on the
building of a "house" for needy family and also entails other
building or repair projects. 
Our projects are completed in some of the most poverty-stricken
areas of the city, usually in inner-city garrison
communities. 
Winter and Spring 2007 was year 13 for the CCDG.  To date,
our volunteers from Northern Ontario have constructed 27
houses, a medical clinic, a barber shop and an artisan
studio.
The organization has also been involved in countless small
projects involving repairing roofs, painting existing buildings
and maintenance work.  But this year unprecedented
demands: physical, financial and emotional, were placed on our
three groups totalling 25 volunteers.
As a result of a fallen candle, four families living within a
common enclosed yard in the Myrrhvilla area of downtown
Kingston lost their humble houses and most of their
possessions.
Group One was to build a house for Telishia, her two children
and her charge, a mentally challenged niece. Though our
fundraising was to provide for three houses, the group quickly
realized our first house would have to consist of a
double-house, in view of the niece's special needs.
Group Two built for Tasheeka and her children.  The
project involved the typical CCDG structure, a 12 by 12 foot,
one room shelter for this young mother. Tasheeka had been
homeless since the fire, and had been  managing to keep
her children safe by sleeping on a friend's kitchen floor.
CCDG's third group was made up of Sudbury high school
students.  In March, the students and the adults providing
supervision constructed a house for Claire and her two
adolescent children. The students also painted the newly
constructed houses for Tasheeka and Telishia. 
The CCDG volunteers see a side of Jamaica that is not usually
experienced by tourists.
I continue to organize and lead such groups three times a year.
I make these journeys, not just for the good we do but also for
the reward I receive year after year in seeing how this
experience is life altering for us.
If you are interested in a special vacation and making a
difference phone me at 674-4455 and visit our space at
http://kingston-jamaica.spaces.live.com.
Gerry Guimond is a Sudbury lawyer and the founder or the Canada
Caribbean Development Group.
