| Profiling ... GIVE US WINGS A twice awarded SJA Peace and Justice grant recipient |
| Profiling ... GIVE US WINGS A twice awarded SJA Peace and Justice grant recipient |
The Minneapolis Star Tribune early in December published a full-page ad of the Charities Review Council. The page listed non-profit organizations that had adherence to the Council’s Accountability Standards and these organizations were those the newspaper recommended a reader should seriously consider when donating money. A detailed list can be found on SmartGivers.org. GIVE US WINGS met all their standards for donation accountability. This remarkable organization relying mostly on Minnesota volunteers, works with the people of Kenya and Uganda, listed as two of the poorest countries in the world. Mary Steiner and her daughter Shawn started this work 10 years ago. The St. Joan of Arc Peace and Justice Committee, when it met in November, willingly gave GIVE US WINGS a grant donation because as several committee members said, ”We need to give our money to people who are on the ground actually doing the work.” Mary and those who volunteer with her have done remarkable things in partnering with the people of Kenya and Uganda.
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Give Us Wings works together with adults and children in Kenya and Uganda to eradicate poverty. Through person-to-person support, both financial and education, people overcome poverty and become self-sufficient. |
There are many members of the St. Joan of Arc Community who have done, or still do work in developing countries. Mary and her daughter wanted to work with the poor and a referral led them to Kenya, Africa. That lead turned out to be a con-artist, as some of them are, but the two women stayed on in Kenya and moving among the people in the villages they started to scratch out a way to help. Mary tells so many times the story of Elijah Omolo, a man she spoke with and asked how she might be helpful and the man said, “What we really need is access to information and education. We need people to give us wings, give us wings.” Mary says “Sure a starving and poor person wants help but they also dream and want a way out of their devastating lives of poverty.” This was the beginning of her work. She discovered that if she and the other volunteers worked collaboratively with the people, the beginnings of problems were solved. Mary says not all problems get solved and she laughs and says the path to a solution is seldom in a straight line.
Three or four months a years Mary works in Kenya or Uganda in an area that has 85% unemployment. It is northeast of the fabled Lake Victoria, now polluted. Kenya was, like Uganda, a British colony, but in 1960 Great Britain disbanded the colony and left no transition in place. Mary has learned that most of her success is with the women who struggle to find clean water, food, and, medical attention. It has been said that whatever has been accomplished in Africa, has been on the backs of women.
Mary Steiner has learned that there is no comprehensive solution to the problems of abject poverty. Some of the micro-financing has worked to get small self-owned businesses started; sometimes it is the need for a well for clean water, or maybe the next village needs a part-time clinic, or perhaps a school. With what money Mary collects, she uses it to create partnerships with the people who are working on a variety of problems. Getting transportation, clean water, books and medicines is a never-ending task and when asked if she gets discouraged, she takes a deep breath and says yes sometimes. But her very next sentence was that she knows some people were helped and some women were doing things differently and there was some schooling and medical attention given to one of the poorest people in the world.
Mary Steiner is not an amateur humanitarian. She has made herself extremely knowledgeable about the world she has chosen to spend a third of each year in. She shies away from compliments and says she does not see herself remarkable but simply responding to the inequity placed in her path in the best way that she is equipped to do so. The website of GIVE US WINGS is very informative and impressive. It serves to tell the viewer of the history of this work, the long list of accomplishments, how to volunteer and most impressive of all is the section that clearly states that Mary Steiner’s GIVE US WINGS meets all standards of the Smart Giver Network, a key charities review council. This review sets the standards that detail exactly how the money is used, how the activity is governed, its financial history and fundraising ethics.
GIVE US WINGS offers overseas volunteer experiences and it is not for those who want to sightsee or shop, it is for those who want to directly work collaboratively with the people of Kenya and Uganda. Mary and Shawn have taken volunteers who use their two or three week vacation time, to work with some of the world’s poorest peoples. Those who have done have experienced a personal transformation and as Mary Steiner says, “You go to meet poverty but what you will really meet are people. People like you and me”
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| Discovery/Volunteer Trips to Kenya and Uganda Go to
Giveuswings.org. for detailed information January 2008 — Two — Three Week Trip to Uganda and Kenya
Or write to Mary Steiner, 450 N. Syndicate, Suite 185 St. Paul, MN 55104 |