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Meet CMAT Volunteer Webmaster Mikael Kjellström!

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

CMAT Volunteer Webmaster Mikael Kjellström with children in Afghanistan.

CMAT Volunteer Webmaster Mikael Kjellström with children in Afghanistan.

Over the past number of years, CMAT has undergone some significant changes, many of which remain out of the public spotlight.  When it came time to reconstruct the CMAT website, the Board of Directors took to Social Media to help find a web designer willing to volunteer his or her time on such a huge challenge.  The search led to Mikael Kjellström, a semi-retired photographer and Emergency Medical Responder with BC Ambulance.   Mikael recalls, “I stumbled across CMAT’s old website a few years ago after a photography colleague of mine mentioned the organization. We discussed the power of images and what organizations lack in images.  After reviewing CMAT’s old website, I knew I could help by designing a new website which would be more user-friendly.”

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Meet CMAT Volunteer Ruby Dyall, RN!

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

ruby dyall

CMAT Volunteer RN Ruby Dyall discusses treatment options for an infant with its mother in Haiti, April 2010.

April 10, 2014:  Ruby Dyall, RN

CMAT Volunteer RN Ruby Dyall was working as a nurse on a cruise ship when the earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010.  “After seeing several of the Haitian crew members I was working with trying frantically for hours on end, night after night, to reach their loved ones in Haiti, I decided right then that I would volunteer my services as a nurse as soon as I finished my contract on the ship,” she states.

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Meet CMAT Volunteer Jeewan Chanicka!

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

CMAT Volunteer Jeewan Chanicka is an elementary principal in the York Region District School Board, in Ontario. He has helped coordinate the Helping Hands Fundraising Project within the YRDSB on behalf of CMAT!

CMAT Volunteer Jeewan Chanicka is an elementary principal in the York Region District School Board, in Ontario. He has helped coordinate the Helping Hands Fundraising Project within the YRDSB on behalf of CMAT!

April 10, 2014 – Jeewan Chanicka – Fundraising

As an educator, Jeewan Chanicka wanted to extend the work he was doing with CMAT into the students’  learning which was happening in his classroom. The Helping Hands project was born early on in CMAT’s existence and through this, students from across the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) engaged in learning which resulted in them assisting children and families around the world.  “With the growing partnership between CMAT and our schools, and through the support of our Inclusive Schools and Community Services, Helping Hands has been made a system-wide initiative across the YRDSB,” states Jeewan.  

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Meet CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz, PCP and Search & Rescue!

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week.

Meet some of the inspiring CMAT volunteers who help us fulfil our missions in communities around the world!

CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz climbs over hundreds of feet of debris in Ishinomaki, Japan - 2011.

CMAT Volunteer Martin Metz climbs over hundreds of feet of debris in Ishinomaki, Japan – 2011.

April 9, 2014 – Martin Metz, PCP and Search and Rescue

Martin felt a calling to assist in disaster relief when a work colleague travelled to Indonesia in 2005 to provide tsunami relief with CMAT.  His first deployment was to Haiti in January 2010 on CMAT’s team 1, and was surprised to see how a few dollars worth of medications and some relatively simple medical procedures saved so many lives after the earthquake.

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