Beliefs

Fred and Bonnie Cappuccino

Founders of Childhaven International

By Frank Daller

Two of COAT's patrons and active volunteers, Fred and Bonnie Cappuccino, have recently been appointed as Members of the Order of Canada for their volunteerism. They are the founders of Child Haven International. Founded in 1985, Child Haven International is a charity registered in Canada, U.S., India and Nepal. Attempting to follow a Gandhian philosophy, it operates three homes for destitute children and women in India and one home in Nepal, providing 24-hour care for 280 children.

The program includes nurture, schooling, clothing, shelter, medical care, plus vocational training and education as the children grow. Child Haven runs a "SoyaCow" program using a Canadian cottage industry technology that provides soya milk at less than the price of cows' milk. Fifteen SoyaCows operate in various centres in India providing clean, high-protein nutrition to poorer economic groups, as well as jobs for women. Bonnie, as International Director, travels quarterly to each of the four homes and the India SoyaCow Centre, while Fred coordinates the fundraising and office work. Child Haven is supported primarily by donations from interested individuals and families, and also through the efforts of 14 local support groups in four provinces.

Go to Article: "The Little Family that Could"

Bonnie and Fred live on the 100-acre family farm near Maxville. They are parents of 21 children, 19 of them adopted from a total of eleven different national and cultural backgrounds. Two were born to them. Their 21 children are now all grown and live in Canada and the U.S. Bonnie and Fred have won many awards, including a UNESCO award "for the Teaching of Human Rights" presented in Paris in 1988. They are the only Canadians to win a UNESCO Award. In 1994, they won Canada's Baha'i Racial Unity Award. Because of their abiding concern for world peace and racial and social justice, Bonnie and Fred are Patrons and active members of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT). The couple came to Canada from the U.S. in 1967 when Fred began his seven year pastorate of Lakeshore Unitarian Congregation (now in Beaconsfield Quebec). Fred is now Minister Emeritus of that congregation. Both he and Bonnie are active in the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa and the new Unitarian Fellowship in Ottawa- Carleton East. The couple became Canadian citizens in 1975. Since the Investiture Ceremony for the Order of Canada was a closed affair, Bonnie and Fred, with the help of the two Unitarian Congregations in Ottawa, COAT and four Child Haven Support Groups, hosted a gathering and celebration at the Unitarian Congregation Hall.

Source: News Release, Child Haven International, January 5, 1996.