1. “At any one time, more than half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne diseases.” (Source: UN)
2. “Intestinal worms due to unsafe drinking water afflict 480 million people in developing countries.” (WHO) (To say nothing of other serious effects such as blindness, dysentery and diarrhea.)
3. More than 443 million school days are lost every year around the world because of a lack of clean drinking water (UNDP).
4. 40 billion hours of work are lost every year in Africa because of having to transport water (Cosgrove, Rijsberman 1998)
5. “African women devote 26% of their time to carrying water.” (DFID)
6. “African women transport on average 40 pounds of water on their heads.” (UNDP)
7. “Installing a secure source of clean drinking water in a village is the first step in a remarkable virtuous circle, whose ripple effect can be felt in the health, education and environment of all those who live there.” (Jean Gagnon)

and dog walker. He successfully got his ‘paws’ on Madonna’s former mansion in Miami and owns several houses in the Bahamas, Miami, Germany and Italy (Source)

From: Guylaine Valley
Date: 2018-05-28
Subject: RE: École Saint-Grégoire-le-Grand eyewear project, Montreal
To: Jean Gagnon Fatima Lahmami

Hello everyone!

Once again a thousand thanks on behalf of the students of St-Grégoire-le-Grand and their parents for the beneficial support of your Foundation. Without this one, many of our students would not have benefited from a visual examination. No doubt this super precious help can only contribute to the academic success of many of our students. What a beautiful initiative !! What a nice team of volunteers! I wish you good luck in this project Coup de Coeur!

Regards,

Guylaine Valley
Director | St-Grégoire-le-Grand School | 7950 Cartier Street, Montreal, Quebec, H2E 2K2

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April 26th, 2018

From: Walter Hughes
To: FCC Jean and Fatima 

Bonjour Jean and Fatima,
There's days when it is good to stop and think about our blessings.  Today, I'm thinking about the two of you.  It is great to know people like you who dream bigger and think about transforming more lives than I can even imagine.  You are a power couple with a huge reach.  
You push me to be better and stronger.  Most people assume that I'm doing enough.  Not you!  You are asking when we are moving into Peru!  In fact, the Key Biscayne, Florida Rotary Club where you visited has a president-elect with a passion for the area near Iquitos, Peru.  Patricia wants to build a school and implement a water & sanitation project in the Amazon area of Peru.  I think our vision and dream for Peru is beginning to take shape.  Key Biscayne has a big mosquito net global grant going now with a strong host Rotary Club.  Also, my district governor and past district governor raise money for wheelchairs in Peru.  Your NGO contact fits nicely as well.  It seems that a good team is developing that makes a big project possible  in Peru.
Our impact needs to be more global.  I would like to put water projects in the endemic polio communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan if we could find good partners to get it done.  Rotary may take ten more years to eradicate polio without including clean water and sanitation.  I even dream of getting projects into South Sudan and Columbia where war has hurt so many people.
Jean and Fatima, you are a tremendous encouragement to me.  There's very few people who understand the work that is involved in transforming lives.  You understand it and do so much more than I do.  It is nice to call you my friends.  It is also good to have friends that ask the question whether we can do more and to think bigger.  The grant in Bolgatanga is a wonderful example where we split the fundraising goal in half.  It is a big project for that club in the Upper East.  You set the example.  You show your love and compassion in your actions, not just your words.  You inspire so many people around the world.
Keep up the good work.  It is an honor to work with you.  The communities that you've helped have told me that they hope that you are blessed as much as you have blessed them.  They appreciate that we cared enough to provide water and sanitation in their community in partnership with them.  Je vous remercie!

Regards,

Walter Hughes


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June 22nd, 2016

Dear Jean and Fatima,
Thank you , Coup de Coeur

We are so glad you received and are pleased with the photos. We understand that this is a minimal response to your request of project information for the website and are working towards having a better representation for you. As I get additional material I will send it to you. Hopefully we will eventually get some video. Our equipment and programs are so grassroots that we really do not have much sophistication in PR. But that was obvious to you from the start! Your encouragement initiated the first professional banner experience for us! Hope you like it as much as we do.
Pablo Guerra, the project manager, is very pleased with the Terrabona experience and APECA in Peru is pleased to have the opportunity to work with you. It was your inquiry that started the activity to approach a long desired project. As I look back on the many emails and the various bumps and turns, I come back to your email of September of 2015 and return your message again with, Yes, we are very interested and want to express our gratitude to you for your having initiating this project at the Terrabona site.
Each time APECA in Peru has the opportunity to engage closely with the people of a community, there are small steps that lead to strengthening the community resources of this precious Amazon River basin.
Perhaps we will never be able to determine the impact on an individual life, but that life is part of a whole community that is now more stable.
APECA can assure you that the development of this sustainable clean water project is part of a better infrastructure that will have lasting impact on hundreds of lives. Terrabona is yet another teaching model with a high profile to lead other communities to healthier, more stable and productive lives.
On the part of the APECA, Inc. board of directors and APECA in Peru, ‘Thank you’ for sharing your wealth of experience and engaging with APECA in Peru to initiate this project in Terrabona, District of Fernando Lores, Peru!

Gina Low,
Founder
APECA in Peru
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Hello Mr. Gagnon,

I just finished looking over your website.... 
Believe me, I am sincerely impressed. It’s a ‘well of wonders!” I wasn’t expecting an Organization of such high calibre, stirring up such happiness in the world. Well done to both you and Fatima. I have noted that you sponsor students as well, and that your funding isn’t necessarily focused solely on  water projects as I had previously thought. This is an admirable accomplishment and I strongly hope to meet you when the wells are finished and everything has come to fruition as you hoped. Not to ask for more of you, but to get to know the people who funded Coup de Coeur, and who has made it such a large part of their life. … It is not surprising that you have given the name ‘Coup de Coeur’ to your creation. ...Your site is magnificent, professional and very touching. I am happy to have made this noble discovery. 
Sincerely, 
Marianne. 
Marianne Déziel for the children of l’Amie.

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Sunday, November 2, 2014
De Mica De Verteuil to FCC

Dear Fatima and Mr Gagnon,
The good news has arrived. We will soon receive a cheque for $8000 which will permit us to keep Guerdès Dorimain as the director of the Fondation Paradis des Indiens. Although this cheque was written by the members of the Montréal Rotary Club, we know that this marvelous gift comes from your foundation. From the bottom of my heart, I want to tell you both how much I appreciate the collaboration between your Foundation and our own. This considerable donation is proof of that, and it is thanks to your generosity that we could appoint a real director. Guerdès is a remarkable and precious individual. His presence completely reassures me of the survival of our foundation. He is a man of integrity and intelligence who is very generous with his time, which is an understatement. He is always ready to take on tasks and carry them out with incredible wisdom. He has never failed to surprise us with the breadth of his know how and expertise. And it is all because of you that we have been able to hire him, and keep him in the service of the foundation. I assure that our gratitude is sincere, constant and profound. 
Sister Marguerite also announced that she has already received many pairs of glasses. I had thought to ask you again because those that I sent to Brother Hervé brought so much happiness. The people who didn’t dare hope have been able to read and work. Many teachers and embroiderers were incapacitated. They begged us to thank you for all of the glasses that came from the Coup de Coeur Foundation. 
The opening of our schools took place Septembre 8th, as scheduled, adding a month of school attendance for our students. This time the government stood before the parents, who were still not financially prepared, to say that the cost been taken care of. During the month of August, a number of trainings took place on the premises. Guerdès separated the teachers by level; the Bacheloréats came for a two week training, followed by a two week training for the Master’s students, and finally a week for the preschool instructors. Again, we are expecting to achieving the best results. 
I want you to know the important role you play in our work at Abricots. The generous funding you’ve given brings lifts a heaving weight from our shoulders that we could not have bared otherwise. I hope that you understand how extremely appreciative we are. 
With our warmest greetings and sincerest of thanks,

Mica
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Oeuvres missionnaires des Franciscains de l’Emmanuel
4155 rue Wellington,
Verdun Montréal, QC
H4G 1V8

To Mr. Jean Gagnon & Madame Fatima Lahmami
At the Administrative Council
By this letter I want to thank you, officially and sincerely, for your donation that permitted us to complete the construction of a well for another neighbourhood of our village, Melong II in Cameroon. Thanks to you and your organization, two schools and an entire district with a population of more than 2000 people now has access to clean drinking water, which insures them better health and an easier life in proximity to the wells in the district. In fact, as the principal of the bilingual secondary school and the superintendent of the school district said at the opening ceremony of the wells last August: “WATER, IT IS LIFE, YOU HAVE GIVEN US LIFE”. In the name of the people of the district of Fassa in the village of Melong II, and in the name of my Franciscan Brothers of Africa, I assure you our heartfelt gratitude for giving our people this essential resource this year.
To you and the entire team at Coup de Coeur,
Denis Antoine, f.e. 
Charity Org. # 892984162 RR0001 
NEQ: 1143049667

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Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 7:24pm Elmire Allary wrote:

Hello Mr. Jean
It is always with joy that I write to you; there is always good news. This time, it is the arrival of a package of glasses that S. Carmen brought me today upon his arrival in Lima. At that moment, I was in Lima. My vacation was over but I delayed my return to Cajabamba in order to meet my friend Carmen at the same time as S. Monique Fortier. Carmen brought me this treasure and the same night I started toward Cajamarca, then Cajabamba: 14 hours on the bus, followed by 3 hours by truck. 
Really, thank you sincerely for this beautiful present. What joy awaits me, to offer this gift and bear witness to the surprise and the joy the moment someone is able to see and read easily. I thank God for your kindness and your sensitivity toward the little ones of this world.
In my absence, the kitchen project has been suspended. We will restart work slowly, because it is raining. Soon I will send more photos. Have a wonderful end of the season.

In brotherhood,
Elmire

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10 July 2017
From Jean Marie
Hello Jean
Just a small sign of life to break the silence. I was absorbed in my many occupations here in CONGO and Rwanda.
I am beginning to free myself more and more. I came back from Rwanda where we were for the District Council (our administrative entity at the congregation level).
I would like to convey once again our thanks for the assistance you have given us both here in Rwanda and in CONGO (Kinshasa). I believe that Brother Gabriel had already sent you the photos of the realization in Rwanda. In CONGO I will go to Kinshasa next month and I will be able to send you the pictures of the realization that works great rendering service to the households of this district of BIBWA.
Besides the glasses were distributed and I have pictures of beneficiaries.
I would be in Canada next October.
fraternally
Jean Marie Amisia
Treasurer of the District Saint John Paul II DRC
FIC Community