Atlanta residents get honor

Food For The Poor Honors Atlanta Residents

	(L to R) Patricia and Edward Buckley at the Dreams Across the Sea gala. Mr. Buckley is a recipient of the Ambassador For The Poor award.
Related Items: Help Provide Water for the Hospital Watch a Video of the Haiti Mission Trip See Photos from the Gala

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Nov. 11, 2014) – Food For The Poor’s Executive Director Angel Aloma named three Atlanta-area residents Ambassadors For The Poor at the charity’s 7th annual Dreams Across The Sea event on Oct. 24, at The InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Ambassador For The Poor honorees are Edward Buckley, managing partner at The Buckley Law Firm LLC (Decatur); the Rev. William Thomas Deneke, an Episcopal priest (Decatur); and Amanda Farahany, a partner at Barrett & Farahany, LLP (Atlanta).

Event proceeds will be used to bring clean, safe drinking water to Dalon, Haiti, through the installation of a 10,000-gallon concrete cistern, and water kiosks. Currently, residents walk more than a mile to reach the local spring, and because of the heavy reliance on this resource, residents usually have to wait 45 minutes to collect water.

Proceeds also will partially fund necessary components for a water project at the Baptist Hospital in Quartier Morin, Haiti. There is no piped water in Quartier Morin. The several shallow, hand-dug wells at the Baptist Hospital are inefficient because they are susceptible to the region’s dry spells, as they are replenished by rainfall. When necessary, water is pumped by hand and delivered in wheelbarrows to the hospital from the nearby children’s home. That well was generously installed in 2012 by Ed Buckley and members of Leadership Atlanta.

“It is our belief that the right to clean drinking water is the most fundamental of human rights, for without clean drinking water we cannot fully exercise our other God-given rights,” said Buckley. “For example, a child can’t enjoy her right to education with parasites roiling in her belly because she does not have clean drinking water. A woman can’t engage in commerce if she has to spend five hours a day hunting for clean water and bringing a five-gallon bucket back to her home, only to repeat the same thing the next day.”

In May, Buckley, Farahany and Rev. Deneke traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor to visit several potential water project sites to benefit from Food For The Poor’s 2014 Dreams Across The Sea event.  While in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the group also celebrated the life of a Decatur, Georgia, nurse, Susan Parry, through the inauguration of a new water well and cistern at the Bernard Mevs Hospital.

“She took care of many patients during her long career,” said Buckley, who credits Parry for organizing the best nursing staff to care for him during a recent health scare. “She brought me back to the land of the living. I feel a huge debt of gratitude to her.”

To invest in a critically needed water project in Haiti, please call 1-888-404-4248, or visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/water-haiti.

Paul Goodloe, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, served as master of ceremonies.

Dreams Across The Sea Co-Chairmen are Chris Curry and Saurel Quettan. Additional committee members include Dr. Paula Nelson Adesokan, Scott and Kari Bardowell, Verlyn Britton, Edward Bruno-Gaston, Edward Buckley, Renee Corey-Lubin, Rev. Lebon Faustin, Gina Frasier, Nekeidra Frederick, Jean Hanges, Michele Jean, Loveless Johnson III, Pascale Jones, Sylvia McClure, Nnena Nchege, Dr. Jason Regis, and Garvin Stewart.

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 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.