Monday, January 15, 2007

Humanitarian Assistance - period ended 5.1.2006

Humanitarian Assistance/Spirit-Driven/Clark, Nancy//Wise volunteers balance good acts with their own well-being/Baltimore Sun/Baltimore/MD/USA/16-Apr-06/... "
A life of service
Among numerous volunteer activities, Nancy Clark of Cedarcroft works three mornings a week at CARES, a food pantry run by the Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. A retired city school teacher who also established and ran a lodge for homeless women, Clark, 73, has been volunteering since childhood, when she helped to fix porches and paint houses for the elderly poor in Philadelphia.

"It made such an impression on me," says Clark, a
Quaker who calls her work "spirit driven." Even as a young girl, she realized that volunteering was about "more than helping people; it was about injustice."

Clark, as well, has her own rule of thumb for volunteering. "You can't look at the big picture, she says. "It can immobilize you." Instead, she says volunteers must ask themselves, " 'Have I made a difference for one person?' "t ...

Humanitarian Assistance/Buffam, Larry and Laura/Simpkin, Jane and Paul/Mission to El Salvador/Auburn Citizen/Auburn/NY/USA/22-Apr-06/... “It's a very rural community, with a simple life,” she said. “They don't have any money. We wanted to help them. We're Quakers, but we didn't want this to be just a Quaker project. We have reached out to other churches.”

Quaker is a name for a member of the Religious Society of Friends, usually referred to as “the friends.” The religious group was founded in England in the 17th century, and one of its most important concepts has been to work for peace in the world. Laura summed up their belief system as one of “peace, simplicity and a direct experience with God. ...


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