Duyen's Siloam Mission Experience

(Left to right: Duyen Chau, Daniel Sousa, Melanie Ilagan, Angel Malapit, Patrick Arcia, Cameron Bonnett)

On March 11, the six of us shown above in the picture went to Siloam Mission to learn about how Siloam Mission works and how it helps our city's less fortunate. Here are the photos taken at Siloam Mission and the descriptions.

(Hannah's Place Emergency Shelter)

Hannah's Place Emergency Shelter is a place dedicated to a 10 year-old girl that started the Ladybug Foundation named Hannah Taylor. The pictures you've seen above are the facilities that the people that stay at Siloam Mission use. Hannah's Place Emergency Shelter was opened since 2007 and has a capacity of 110 beds, and a safe 5 bed family room for an emergency and temporary stay. This drug and alcohol free facility provides two separate areas for the males and females own beds and washrooms. In 2009-2010, there were 37, 978 shelter stays, by more than 1600 people. These exercise machines were donated by Curves and Shapes for the people that stay at Siloam Mission use if they wish to do so.



The beautiful works of art were made by the people who stayed or stays at Siloam Mission's Art Program and now are moving on to a more brighter part of their journey in life. Also the people that made these incredible works of art never had any art lessons or any experience working with art. Siloam Mission's Art Program runs on Thursday by volunteers where the people who stay at Siloam Mission have access to a variety of art supplies for their own expression and development of talent. In the year 2009-2010, 636 people participated in the art program.


The picture above shows a piece of paper that has a poem called "Anonymous" written on it and is framed and displayed proudly at Siloam Mission.


The picture above shows the Volunteer Centre's bulletin board where the staff of Siloam Mission posts the resources for the dedicated volunteers that work at Siloam Mission. The volunteers work in all areas of work at Siloam Mission. There were over 600 new volunteers in 2009-2010. In 2009-2010, Siloam Mission had over 60,000 hours of volunteers provided by approximately 1,800 individuals and 340 groups which equals to an additional 29 full time staff.


The picture above shows the food that is used to serve the people that come to Siloam Mission for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Primary donors for the food services program are the Winnipeg Harvest and Hutterite Colonies of Manitoba which equals out to 1/3 of the food comes from Winnipeg Harvest, 1/3 Hutterite Colonies of Manitoba, and 1/3 individual donors. In 2009-2010, 254,857 meals were provided and an extra 2,721 emergency hampers.

The pictures above show the Saul Sair Health Centre at Siloam Mission which opened in August of 2007 through a generous gift from the late Saul Sair, a Winnipeg pharmacist. The Saul Sair Health Centre provides health-care regardless to anyone regardless of who they are. The services provides are medical, dental, chiropractic, foot care, physiotherapy, health education and much more. In addition everything is free of charge. In 2009-2010, there were 4,262 visits to the Saul Sair Health Centre.

Additional Information:

• Siloam mission is open 365 days a year including holidays
• majority of patrons are males and First Nation
• 2009-2010-14,533 supports provided for patrons spiritually, emotionally, and other helps or referrals
• everything offered at Siloam Mission is free of charge
• clothing, haircuts, toiletries, blankets, pillows, and backpacks is provided for the patrons
• in 2009-2010 the clothing room received 11,983 visits

In the last year:

• 900 meals served each day
• each week an average of 230 clothing room visits
• each month 360 health centre patrons are seen
• 337 groups volunteered
• 1,632 individuals volunteered
• 5,008 total volunteers
• 60,339 total number of hours volunteers put in
• 736 haircuts
• 3,520 emergency food hampers
• 254,857 meals served
• 600 dental visits
• 4,162 medical visits
• 312 women used Siloam Mission's shelter
• 1,306 men used Siloam Misson's shelter
• 37,978 total shelter stays

Here is a link to Siloam Mission's official website.

Video about Siloam Mission

I really enjoyed the experience of how it would feel like to be homeless for approximately an hour and a half and knowing that there are organizations out there like Siloam Mission out there that help the less fortunate, I feel really warm inside even if it was sort of chilly that day.

My favorite part of our trip to Siloam Mission is when Leanne, our tour guide showed us the art area where she showed us the breathtaking masterpieces. I admired all the art works, but my favorite was the family portrait by this man who was an alcoholic and he was not accepted by his family. Now he has changed and works and lives happily in life.