foun·da·tion
Maria first traveled abroad when she was fifteen. She visited the impoverished town of Sabana de Uchire in Venezuela with a youth group. Maria liked the idea of building something for other people who couldn’t do it on their own. While fulfilling the needs of Sabana de Uchire, Maria discovered a love for the people who had nothing, and yet were gracious, loving, and full of hope and faith.
This was a pivotal turning point in Maria’s life. She felt as though she was a changed person with new perspective upon her return to the states and had a strong desire to continue to make a difference. Maria continued her service with trips to Mexico, the Philippines, east Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania as well as among the Milwaukee and Chicago homeless communities.
Maria has a passion for people from all over the world. She loves understanding how they live, their culture, and their language. The idea of building something alongside of people and having it last long after she is gone is her mission—not just the bricks and mortar, but the hope, love, and possibilities it brings to lives of other people.
de·ter·mi·na·tion
When Maria was 20, she traveled to east Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania. Her travels led her into the indescribable slums of Africa. Crime and violence; infants and children sitting in their own feces; women turning to prostitution to earn income for medication to save the lives of their children; these were commonplace among the people of Africa.
Maria had traveled a great deal up to this point but had never fully captivated the seriousness of poverty and life-threatening conditions faced by these people--people constantly having to fight for basic needs of food, shelter, and water. She had seen enough. Maria was determined to be part of the solution, not when she was retired or had enough money, but immediately.
pas·sion
As Maria continued her life back in the states, she completed her degree, began her career, and met her husband but still never lost sight of her vision. What was always a critical goal, interest, and passion was now much more.
Maria originally thought of building and self-funding an orphanage, but she has since returned to an established orphanage in East Africa. Mama Zapora, who started a children’s home in Nugong Hills, provides shelter, food, and other resources to over 150 children per year. Mama Zapora’s irreplaceable love and attention to these children has even resulted in several graduations and acceptances into college.
After seeing this establishment for a second time, Maria was impressed by the perfect display of sustainability. Since her last trip in November of 2010, Maria realized that her goal of building an orphanage with her own resources was a bit shortsighted and limiting. In addition, she recognized that there are facilities all over the world that are good stewards of their money and resources. These facilities are doing great things. They just need to be built further.
vi·sion
Maria’s hope and desire is to build a non-profit along side many other skills with talented, caring, compassionate people. Her first project is to build a greenhouse, so that the children in Mama Zapora’s orphanage can have fresh, healthy food. This will enable them to supply their own food and grow it throughout the entire year.
In this orphanage alone, there are over 20 children who are HIV positive. Although this facility is using and leveraging its resources excellently, it needs a higher degree of sustainability. They need more access to protein, which will be a core goal for this project. This will provide more food, more clean water, delivery of health care and education and will eventually eradicate poverty and provide people with the tools they need to become self-sustaining. We're using and leveraging the resources excellently, but need higher degrees of sustainability, so that they can provide more food, more clean water, delivery of health care and education to essentially eradicate poverty and help people become self-sustaining.
Maria and her husband Grant plan on continuing their travels to Thailand and Guatemala to visit several other orphanages. Their hope is to spend time gaining a better understanding of how these facilities are leveraging their current resources and establish next steps for sustainability.
first·steps
Maria’s biggest goal right now is building the right team. The creation of this non-profit will be best done with a team of people who are compassionate, skilled and can help in bringing this vision to fruition.
Maria hopes to have completed her first greenhouse project by end of 2012.
