As we head into this special time of paying attention to our tax issues, errr, helping the less fortunate, I thought it was time to report on the one project in which I’ve been able to help people just a teeny tiny bit (I know, you’d think that being the Fonzie of the electric utility legal practice and dropping well-placed “that’s what she said” remarks would be enough. Sadly, we live in a world where that’s just not enough).
Many of you may recall that the Don and Birdie Reeder Global Emergency Fund began helping children throughout the world last year. Administered by Children’s Emergency Relief International, based in Kingwood, this fund’s primary goal is to provide resources to children and adolescents with emergency and imminent needs. Many of you were kind enough to contribute in memory of my mother. In cooperation with our former pastor, Dr. Dearing Garner, we hoped through this fund to continue the work of my Mom and Dad, who for many years went on mission trips throughout the world focused on helping children. In the time since her passing, I’ve realized that Mom’s main purpose in life was to be a beacon to children, giving them love and teaching them respect. Dr. Garner led those mission trips and knew my mother since 1978. He’s in charge of every penny spent from the fund, and as he told me the other day, he always asks “what would Birdie want” whenever making these decisions. I could not ask for a better steward for the Fund or shepherd for its recipients.
As it has developed, the Fund addresses conditions that make children in many parts of the world vulnerable to trafficking. This includes not only for sexual purposes but for labor as well. The practice is particularly intense in eastern Europe, Asia, and South Africa, and in any place afflicted with poverty or large numbers of uncared for orphans. Many governments have signed treaties banning trafficking, but this evil practice continues to flourish for many reasons.
CERI participates with many local-based child welfare and assistance organizations throughout the world, to work in partnership with these organizations to help children, particularly orphaned or abandoned children. Especially in places like Moldova, governments often are content to warehouse children then turn them loose on the street at 14 or so where they become vulnerable to traffickers.
CERI has made available resources from the Reeder Fund in a fairly targeted way. It has initiated programs to help children transitioning out of orphanages into homes or other facilities, such that they can live and grow into adulthood while continuing their education or acquiring work skills. The alternatives are often bleak-begging or going off with strangers promising to take care of them (which often turns out to be child traffickers). CERI and its partners have started “transitional living programs” for these youth, helping to ease them out of orphanages, then ultimately into mainstream society.
The Reeder Fund has been used in support of this program. CERI has used the fund to provide for emergencies or immediate needs for many of this program’s participants. Funds have been spent in Moldova, a former Soviet republic, and Nigeria, as well as on a water project in Sri Lanka.
On both the plus and minus side, there’s a surprising amount of money remaining in the fund. I had feared that they’d blow through the fund fairly quickly. However, it’s been a bit of a challenge to get the local directors to ask for the money. They’ve had something of a resistance to leaning too heavily on outside resources. We are working to make them more aware of the Fund and encourage them to request resources from it. I’m meeting again with Dr. Garner before the end of the year, and I think we may also liberalize some of the restrictions on the Fund, such that the “emergency” need not be so immediate. This would allow us to spend the money more freely on children in need.
The Fund’s first year has been a huge success in the way that Miss Birdie would have appreciated. More great things are on the horizon throughout the world, and this money will further work that will make a positive and dramatic difference in children's lives. That’s exactly what my Mom would have wanted.
For more information about the work of this Fund or CERI, you can visit http://www.cerikids.org/ceri/. Or just click that link.
Many of you may recall that the Don and Birdie Reeder Global Emergency Fund began helping children throughout the world last year. Administered by Children’s Emergency Relief International, based in Kingwood, this fund’s primary goal is to provide resources to children and adolescents with emergency and imminent needs. Many of you were kind enough to contribute in memory of my mother. In cooperation with our former pastor, Dr. Dearing Garner, we hoped through this fund to continue the work of my Mom and Dad, who for many years went on mission trips throughout the world focused on helping children. In the time since her passing, I’ve realized that Mom’s main purpose in life was to be a beacon to children, giving them love and teaching them respect. Dr. Garner led those mission trips and knew my mother since 1978. He’s in charge of every penny spent from the fund, and as he told me the other day, he always asks “what would Birdie want” whenever making these decisions. I could not ask for a better steward for the Fund or shepherd for its recipients.
As it has developed, the Fund addresses conditions that make children in many parts of the world vulnerable to trafficking. This includes not only for sexual purposes but for labor as well. The practice is particularly intense in eastern Europe, Asia, and South Africa, and in any place afflicted with poverty or large numbers of uncared for orphans. Many governments have signed treaties banning trafficking, but this evil practice continues to flourish for many reasons.
CERI participates with many local-based child welfare and assistance organizations throughout the world, to work in partnership with these organizations to help children, particularly orphaned or abandoned children. Especially in places like Moldova, governments often are content to warehouse children then turn them loose on the street at 14 or so where they become vulnerable to traffickers.
CERI has made available resources from the Reeder Fund in a fairly targeted way. It has initiated programs to help children transitioning out of orphanages into homes or other facilities, such that they can live and grow into adulthood while continuing their education or acquiring work skills. The alternatives are often bleak-begging or going off with strangers promising to take care of them (which often turns out to be child traffickers). CERI and its partners have started “transitional living programs” for these youth, helping to ease them out of orphanages, then ultimately into mainstream society.
The Reeder Fund has been used in support of this program. CERI has used the fund to provide for emergencies or immediate needs for many of this program’s participants. Funds have been spent in Moldova, a former Soviet republic, and Nigeria, as well as on a water project in Sri Lanka.
On both the plus and minus side, there’s a surprising amount of money remaining in the fund. I had feared that they’d blow through the fund fairly quickly. However, it’s been a bit of a challenge to get the local directors to ask for the money. They’ve had something of a resistance to leaning too heavily on outside resources. We are working to make them more aware of the Fund and encourage them to request resources from it. I’m meeting again with Dr. Garner before the end of the year, and I think we may also liberalize some of the restrictions on the Fund, such that the “emergency” need not be so immediate. This would allow us to spend the money more freely on children in need.
The Fund’s first year has been a huge success in the way that Miss Birdie would have appreciated. More great things are on the horizon throughout the world, and this money will further work that will make a positive and dramatic difference in children's lives. That’s exactly what my Mom would have wanted.
For more information about the work of this Fund or CERI, you can visit http://www.cerikids.org/ceri/. Or just click that link.
Thanks so much to all of you who donated. Hopefully this lets you know your gift has helped.
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