Its client base includes the homeless, people suffering from mental illness and HIV/AIDS, and impoverished and middle-class families dealing with temporary hardships.
"We serve about 400 daily meals for the homeless and provide everything from a food pantry to emergency services for those facing eviction," said Karen Heyward-West, the facility's president and CEO. Founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore in 1968, the center also offers health screenings, literacy and technology programs and other initiatives designed to help break the cycle of poverty.
"The decorations the children made are beautiful," Heyward-West said. "I think that activities like this one, where children are given a sense of how to aid other people in their community and world, helps build character."
Principal Brenda Abrams said these types of educational projects merge classroom lessons like geography and art with intangible life lessons such as giving and gratitude.
"We want children to learn and that learning can take place in many ways," she said. "When they really understand how people live in different communities, I believe they will understand how to contribute not just to America, but to this world."
MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about Jhpiego, go to jhpiego.org. To learn more about The Franciscan Center, go to franciscancenterbaltimore.org.
LETTER FROM KENYA
"With the money sent, we shall work with the Viwandani community to develop the Lunga Lunga Kitchen garden. This garden measures approximately one acre. People living with HIV in slums have challenges of accessing food. In slums, there are no gardens as would be found in rural areas. For this reason, when one is not employed they are not able to feed themselves or their families. It becomes difficult ... because proper nutrition is part of the treatment and they are not able to take medicine on an empty stomach.
"With this money we shall train [the community] how to grow vegetables in a sack; we have also identified land at the health facility in Lunga Lunga which can be used to grow lots of vegetables. ... Right now it is the rainy season in Kenya. The money came in good time so we will not have to irrigate the gardens since there will be enough rain water for the plants. Among the vegetables we shall grow are: kale, spinach and many other local vegetables whose names I don't know in English. Thank you so much. Jane. "
Letter from Jane Otai, Kenyan-based program manager with Jhpiego, a nonprofit health organization, to students at Waverly Elementary School
