Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2023 was rich in its bounty and beautiful memories. Barka Canada celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2023. Our friends from Barka UK — Ewa Sadowska and Andrew Keogh — were able to visit for this celebration. We would like to sincerely thank everyone who was able to come to our event or contributed over the years to our projects. We had a wonderful opportunity to reminisce about the many people who we were able to help, many of whom then helped others regain their dignity and health.

Our Community Farm produced a bounty of organic vegetables, garlic and herbs. A portion of these proceeds ($1000) was donated to the Kopernik Lodge Foundation which celebrated their 50th anniversary with a beautiful Gala dinner. We are excited about the new facilities being built for the lodge and how it continues the rich legacy of its Polish founders.

A new group, our women’s support group, has also begun meetings, with many exciting ideas planned for next year.

As we await Christmas, let us be thankful for all our blessings and filled with hope for a prosperous and joyful 2024!

Come Jesus; come, give strength to the light and to the good; come where dishonesty, ignorance of God, violence and injustice dominate; come, Lord Jesus, give strength to the good in the world and help us to be bearers of your light, workers of peace, witnesses of truth. Come Lord Jesus! (Benedict XVI)

10th Anniversary Celebrations

In March Barka Canada celebrated its 10-year anniversary!

10anniversary_339748461_cropped
10anniversary_339821870_cropped
10anniversary_340099366_cropped
10anniversary_339999948_cropped
10anniversary_340102035_cropped
10anniversary_340084817_cropped
10anniversary_340088615_cropped
10anniversary_339851870_cropped
10anniversary_339805492_cropped

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our event at Saint Casimir’s Polish Parish (special thank you to Father Tomasz for the warm welcome). During the evening we showcased our past and current outreach work, and shared our plans for the next years ahead. We encourage everyone to view a documentary recently released about Barka Poland – Source of Life.

It was wonderful to see our colleagues at Barka UK Ewa Sadowska and Andrew Keogh, thank you for your support and inspiring us all.

We would like to recognize the incredible work of Piotr Szymlowski who has for many years organized the AA/NA group as well as leads the Community Farm project.

Finally, we would like to sincerely invite anyone who would like to join our organization, or if you would like to visit and help at our Community farm to reach out directly.

Barka Canada Team

Our Community Farm 2022 — Memories in Pictures

We worked hard and we had fun – have a look:

farm2022_w_IMG_0066_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG-8021_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_0059_cropped_e
farm2022_w_IMG_20220923_163705_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_0352_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG-8024_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG-8029_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9628_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_20220928_150847_cropped_e
farm2022_w_IMG-9498_cropped_e
farm2022_w_IMG_20220803_123940_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9952_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9985_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9948_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG-9492_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG-6687_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9641_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9743_cropped
farm2022_w_IMG_9799_cropped_e
farm2022_w_IMG_9788_cropped

Our delicious and beautiful crops:

farm2022_c_IMG-9505_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG-9185_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG-6695_cropped_e
farm2022_c_IMG_0373_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG-6689_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9513_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9515_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9518_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9519_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_0377_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG-9496_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_0370_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9939_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG-9506_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_0366_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_0369_cropped
farm2022_c_tomato_barka_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9946_cropped
farm2022_c_IMG_9798_cropped_e
farm2022_c_IMG-9497_cropped

Art by Eric Sosnowski:

Please see also earlier posts about our Community Farm and the videos therein:

We are grateful to our members and volunteers for their work, resources, and wonderful companionship, and to RussLynn Blueberries for allowing us to use their land in Abbotsford and making it all possible.

Christmas Wishes 2022

Barka Canada would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This year has been a busy one for us and our friends at Barka Poland, who opened their hearts and homes to many refugees from Ukraine. We helped organize a benefit concert put on by the BC Canadian Polish Congress which raised $4,100 which was used to directly support those who fled the war into Poland.

Our Barka Canada team spent almost 1000 hours this summer cultivating crops at the community farm, which were sold to fund our outreach program. We are confident that our investment in organic heirloom garlic will yield dividends next harvest. We are thankful to share our harvest with those who need it this Christmas, and that we can enjoy it together in peace, knowing so many around the world are not so fortunate.

We join Pope Francis in prayer:

Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Amen