As the USSR unravelled in the hard winter of 1991-92, Quaker Canada, as it was then, decided to make a goodwill donation of a container of instant oatmeal to the orphanages of Belarus. The operation went off without a hitch. The orphanages each sent a manager, an orphan and a truck to receive their portions at the Olympic Sports Complex in Minsk. There was a modest ceremony, and off home they went.
As the last truck vanished into the cold dusk of a Russian February, I turned to my Soviet colleague Yuri and asked, “How do we know the orphans will …read more
Source: Ottawa Citizen
