Our Speaker Colin Glassco

Posted by David Holden
 
Our speaker was introduced by Eva Friesen.
 
The Glassco Foundation received its charitable status in 1996. Our mandate is to seek out children's issues in Canada and overseas, provide financial and organizational assistance as well as on-site support.

As the administration expenses of the Foundation are covered by a special donation 100% of all outside donations including those received from Canadahelps.org (estimated to be $10,000 annually) go directly to the children.
 
Colin was born in Vancouver and raised in Ontario.  He has a BA from Queen’s and a MBA from McMaster.  Started in the Financial services industry.  Moved to Calgary “for a short time” in 1978 and has never left.  He started then sold an oil company in 1989 and started and runs his own Foundation doing great work.
 
Notes:
  • His work in Zambia has been and continues to be a great adventure
  • Has a few programs in Canada and many programs ongoing in Zambia
  • Gwembe valley in the Southern Province of Zambia is where they do all their work
  • How did he get started? … went oversees with an organization called Sleeping Children Around the World when they distributed bed kits.  What an adventure that was!
  • Did something that was worthwhile, got to remote area of the country, great traveling
  • Decided to concentrate on eyes – started out working with Operation Eyesight
  • They connected Colin with a Doctor that goes into the bush in Zambia and does eye clinics
  • They went to Zambia
  • Two things 2,100 kids examined for Trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye in which there is inflamed granulation of the inner surface of the lids, and found that over half were infected
  • While there the Doctor also did a cataract surgery on a five year old boy and seeing him looking around the room in wonder after the bandages came off was amazing
  • An agreement was established for Colin’s Foundation to pay for further needed surgeries
  • We had to get closer … very remote so they established a clinic in the Gwembe valley which was the start of the Zambian project to get rid of Trachoma.
  • Fairly simple, line people up, identify those infected and medicate, then education about flies causing the spread and keep your faces clean
  • This lead to the next issue, that of insufficient clean water
  • Not able to provide the water then but by year 2000, the Glassco Foundation got a substantial donation (from Calgary and Hamilton) and they started drilling water wells (10 in the first year, 20 in the next year, 40 in the next year)
  • It became an internal goal to work towards providing clean water to everyone in the district
  • Now have drilled over 650 wells and that has provided water to everyone in the Gwembe district
  • Sustainability of the wells became the next challenge, big program established four years ago to make that happen
  • The only government agency that they work with is the Department of Water Affairs (DWA)
  • We work with them and when they agree to pay for 10 well, DWA gives them 10 wells, dry wells do not count towards the 10 the Glassco Foundation is paying for.  This guarantees that donators’ money does not go towards a dry well
  • Started meeting health and education officials from their involvement in the area
  • Met the district health officer in a very rustic office, and the idea of building a clinic was born
  • Built first clinic and it worked well so they built six more to provide proper health coverage to all in Gwembe
  • Health clinics included running water, which is still rare in rural Zambia
  • People have been flocking to the local clinics as it avoids them having to walk 12 to 15 miles to any sort of health support
  • Have been asked to start building staff accommodations and other related infrastructure
  • Not to be out done, the Education Department said they had 61 schools but many are not included in the government’s official educational system
  • Glassco has started building schools and the new schools are part of the official system and once built the government staffs them and provides supplies
  • Glassco is very careful to ensure the government is ready with staff and supplies before they build a new school
  • They only build a school when the government identifies a need and the locals agree they want a school
  • Process is very important
  • In one case they built a school beside a river and had to build a bridge because the river is very large during the rainy season and access to the school and to the clinic would not be possible from the other side during the rainy season
  • Spend most of our time in very remote areas
  • In the valley there are also two very ill equipped clinics, so Glassco arranges to sends containers of medical supplies to those clinics
  • Stuffed animals have also been sent for the Zambian kids and they were happily accepted after the initial fear of “what are those things” subsided
  • Also included two income producing projects, one is a goat pass on project and the other is a coop of a hammer mill to grinder corn to maze powder.  Glassco provided a building and a hammer mill to get the coop started
  • Two more projects up near the Capital: first is a Children’s Home and school for 75 children
  • The second is in cooperation with the Lusaka eye hospital,  helping kids in the capital with all sorts of eye disease
  • The emotional moments makes all effort worthwhile.  Each opening have many emotional moments
  • The key has been the number of donors, their loyalty has allowed for the growth
  • 1996 = 5 donors, 2016 > 300 donors and have issued over 4500 receipts since they started
  • 4 keys: first is positive affect on children, second is direct supervision of projects, third is Colin’s being “lucky enough” to be able to pay for all the overhead and administrative costs, and fourth all the donors are friends or almost friends
  • Colin’s job is to make all the donors feel like they have been to Zambia without them having to actually go 
  • The donors get ongoing pictures of progress to the project
  • Parts for the wells Glassco drilled and for any other wells (many had been abandoned due to simple issues like worn gaskets) is one of the keys to sustainability
  • Colin told a story of a burn victim (Irene) getting the arm, which had been fused to her body, separated off and the subsequent joy of being able to tie a friendship bracelet onto Colin’s wrist
  • Through the interpreter Irene’s mother said she had trouble imagining what Canada looks like but is sure God must come from Canada
  • An unplanned project that was also a success
 
Frank Hall thanked our speaker with a certificate about our CAWST donation and a RCC Centennial book.