Friday, May 4, 2012

Honor Mom, restore other women’s power to dream

In developing countries, mothers often are the sole providers for their families and earn less than $2 a day. If there is no work, they sometimes are forced to scavenge local garbage dumps alongside their children for food or anything recyclable. Food, clean water, shelter, medical care and education are all out of reach for these destitute women.

Elva Brady, left, a Food For The Poor donor
“My heart goes out to mothers who raise children as a single parent,” said Elva Brady, a Food For The Poor donor who is committed to funding development projects for women. “My mother was one of these women.”

This Mother’s Day, caring donors can celebrate the lives of their mothers and improve the lives of others in developing countries. Gifts that provide hope for the future can be found at foodforthepoor.org/catalog.

“Food For The Poor has given me an avenue to honor my mother by helping women in Guatemala,” said Brady. “These women can find their value and empowerment through education in the women development centers and by organizing the chicken farms. My hope is to at least help one mother remove herself from a life scavenging through local garbage dumps, to an improved life with hope for a brighter future for herself and her children.”

Brady has traveled to Guatemala with Food For The Poor representatives and met many Food For The Poor beneficiaries, including Aurelia Pac. 

“When I saw the water for the first time, I was crying tears of joy… it is a miracle,” said Pac, a mother and beneficiary of a Food For The Poor water project in Guatemala. This gift of clean, safe drinking water means Pac and other women and children in the village no longer have to trek for miles to fetch water for their family’s daily needs. Pac now earns a living washing clothes for others.

Food For The Poor development projects for women include vocational training courses in baking and sewing, group aquaculture and animal husbandry projects, access to clean water and permanent housing, and shelter and food for expecting mothers.

“Every day, millions of children are forced to go hungry, thousands suffer from severe malnourishment, and their mothers are helpless to save them,” said Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s Executive Director. “When children cry out in pain, it breaks the parents’ hearts because they do not have food, clean drinking water and medicines to give their children – in some cases, to save their lives.”

Even though Mother’s Day is only once a year, you can motivate the women at your next luncheon, retreat or monthly meeting to take action by inviting a Food For The Poor speaker. For additional information about Food For The Poor’s development projects for women, please contact Paul Kane by calling 1-877-654-2960, ext. 6641 or by emailing PaulK@foodforthepoor.com.

All gifts are tax-deductible. To support Food For The Poor’s development projects for women, checks payable to Food For The Poor can be mailed to 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. Please include reference number “SC# 82722” to ensure your donation is accurately routed.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. 

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6614
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com

No comments:

Post a Comment