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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Saciar - the Beginning of Something Beautiful
About nine years ago a man died. During his funeral, many people unknown to the grieving family of the deceased began arriving to offer their condolences. When asked how they knew the deceased, they all told similar stories of how this man had helped them overcome adversity by providing their families with food, clothing or helping pay for the education of their children.
The man at the center of this story was the father of Mrs. Silvia Llano Mesa, the current Manager of Fundacion Saciar, a foodbank in Medellin, Colombia.
Mrs. Llano Mesa’s family had no idea that their father had been helping all of these people until the day of his funeral. They decided to continue their father’s legacy by establishing the foundation. Today, Saciar provides 650 organizations in and around Medellin with food, clothes and medicines for distribution among the neediest people. They also established 12 soup kitchens where 2000 kids daily receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch.
Currently Saciar has 25 fulltime employees and 120 volunteers to assist run this wonderful organization with the task of helping the most vulnerable people.
We were fortunate to be able to volunteer here for the past 5 weeks, and get to know the Saciar “family” a little. A very rewarding and gratifying experience. Working with the kids was a lot of fun. Today, our last day, the staff at Saciar showed us a heart-warming letter they received from one of the children, thanking everybody at the organization--including us, ‘working with paper’ (origami)! ...What a great way to wrap up our mission here, and knowing that our visits were well received.
Categories: volunteering
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