Mary Mother of Peace-Medjugorje Charity, Inc.

By working with local volunteers, we can have a big impact with small amounts of money, providing essentials to war orphans, victims of natural disasters and helping poor children go to school.

Why do we exist?

Mary Mother of Peace-Medjugorje Charity exists to help war orphans, homeless children, poor families and people in need of all faiths regain dignity by improving their living and educational conditions overseas and at home. Current focus at home is to help restore health and well-being to wounded veterans in military hospitals with the "Little Flower" project. We are now helping 12 wounded soldiers looking to find a job with resume preparation as a stepping stone to rebuild their lives in the US with dignity and hope. We do this in partnership with the “Wounded Warrior Project” and plan to care for new wounded men and women when they arrive at the hospital in the US from the battlefield by funding some WWP backpacks. The backpack contains essential care and comfort items such as clothing, toiletries, a calling card, a CD player and playing cards. We will also give them healing prayers cards. Current focus overseas is on Bosnia and Herzegovina (orphans, poor families) --- plus Mexico (rural poor), India (post-disaster recovery, clean water, medical care and sending children to school) and Haiti (especially poor women and children).

The CFC of the National Capital Area is a cornerstone of philanthropy for more than 3,200 charities. Mary Mother of Peace-Medjugorje Charity is just one of them. We are perhaps unique because we work with a carefully selected number of suffering families and children and for efficient results we rely on dedicated local volunteers who make sure that implementation of projects, programs and actions is accomplished as intended, with honesty, love, compassion and professionalism. How do we work? For example, when an abandoned child is identified for the program of assistance, the first step is to protect the child by bringing him/her to a place where he/she can be taken care of in a family-like environment. See pictures 1,2,3 below in that order for the case of twin sisters Tanemozhi and Kanemozhi who were left homeless, hungry, sick and in despair after the tsunami in Tamil Nadu, India. Now an aunt is taking care of them with our support. They smile again to life.
Pictures:
• Volunteers Meet With Kane Tanemozhi
• Tane Kanemozhi Learning Decision
• Tane Kanemozhi Turning To Adopting Aunt

With our humble means, we are addressing emergency and basic needs so that the few people with critical needs that we can help are fed and able to work again. We provide food, shelter, clothing, clean water, money, educational training, medical, dental and psychological assistance. We also make sure that orphans and children are protected, and can go back to school. For our wounded veterans, the goal is to help their mental and spiritual healing by offering to connect them with war orphans to mutually rebuild lives, those of American service people and of young victims abroad. It is in giving that you receive.

What have you accomplished?

"The important thing is not how much we accomplish, but how much love we put to our deeds every day" Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say. We do what we can the best we can to help war orphans, homeless children, poor families, handicapped teenagers, tsunami survivors and refugees of all faiths at home and overseas. We are a growing family each year.

Displaced by war:
For example, with the logistical help of a volunteer US Peacekeeper, Sgt Joe, we gave a tractor and a plough to minority refugees returning to their destroyed villages near Modrica in Northern Bosnia to rebuild their life. At the same time Joe distributed winter socks and shoes to three orphanages. Financing of the tractor and plough was made possible with the support of the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna, Virginia and of the talent of a former US Ambassador who helped us develop and promote the project. The young Croat Pastor of Modrica is supervising the use of the tractor and is playing a key leadership role for the reconstruction and reconciliation program in this Serb area. As a result of MMP-MC action, Finland decided to give a second tractor. A third one is needed.

Emmerging Support:
On the US front, we were deeply moved by the 9/11 tragedy. “We will always remember with faith and hope September 11 and pray in solidarity for all the suffering families of the victims”, Bernard and Claudine wrote. In early 2002 the Charity offered a one-week rest and recuperation in Florida to an exhausted firefighter from New York and his family. Nick was working for months at "Ground Zero".

Dreams come true:
Similarly in 2001, the Charity MMP-MC helped George, a handicapped boy who just graduated from high school in Indianapolis to visit Universal Studios in Orlando. "It was the best trip of my life", George wrote.

Citizen Diplomacy:
From 2004 to 2008 MMP-MC supported the work of the Crossroads team that is walking across the US, witnessing to the value of every human life. The students walked from California to Washington DC! Their walk ended up at the National Shrine and on the steps of the US Capitol where the TV media and a Senator welcome them. God bless America!

Natural Disasters:
Maha, now 17, was a 12 years old girl when she survived the tsunami in Asia. Maha’s family was staying in a hut, in the slum area, very close to sea, near Santhome in Chennai. During the tsunami, she and her family lost everything and stayed for more than one year in a tent provided by a slum clearance board in Kannaki Nagar, with no electricity and getting water only once a week. They were deprived of the basic necessities. Through MMP-MC’s God-parenthood program, a benefactor is now supporting Maha since 2006 in a useful way for her to go back to school and continue her studies, what she does brilliantly. “I want to become a doctor, so that I can help people who are victims of natural disasters” she said. Her father Nalla Thambi is a part-time auto-rickshaw driver and her mother Susheela is a housewife. Her 19 year old brother, Muniyan, is helping the family to survive while trying to continue to go to school.
Photo - The children who commute to school from Kannagi Nagar

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