Mr. Speaker, I draw to the attention of the House the Black Creek Orphans' Project in Mbiko, Uganda. This impressive international development initiative was started by Billy Vlaad and Kristi Taylor, two of my constituents in their early twenties from Espanola, Ontario. Theirs is an example of the good news the new Governor General asked us to speak about.
While Billy and Kristi were participating in a university sponsored development project in Uganda a couple of years ago, local residents expressed a desire to see the development of a program that would instil pride and self-sufficiency among the residents and many orphans in the village of Mbiko. The Black Creek Orphans' Project assists the guardians of local orphans in setting up business ventures through a capital loans system and access to technical and business skills training. The profits from these business ventures will be used to fund educational opportunities for orphans under their care.
Mr. Vlaad and Ms. Taylor returned to Canada from the site of their project in Uganda several months ago to work on the Canadian portion of their organization. Since that time they have obtained charitable status designation from Revenue Canada. We should applaud their worthy efforts on behalf of the orphans of Uganda.