Monday,
July 6, 2015
Day
90
Today
we get to go and meet the wonderful people who have been helping us
at Unbound. Unbound is the largest non-profit organization in Kansas. They are housed in a large old building that was a warehouse.
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| Unbound is housed in a renovated warehouse in Kansas City. It seems fitting since their mission crosses many borders that their parking lot includes the border between Kansas and Missouri! |
We arrived at 10:00 and were welcomed and greeted by Clair, Erica and
Larry and photographer April. Clair has been our liaison and “help-desk” from the
start of the planning of this trip and all along the way. Larry
interviewed us about our trip. He shares our love of baseball and is
a faithful Kansas City Royals fan. Hopefully they can use the
interview to inspire others to support Unbound! After the interview,
Clair gave us a tour of the Unbound offices. She told us about the
different sections including Outreach. Outreach traditionally has
been sending 40 preachers out into communities each weekend to
churches. Depending on the size of the church, they can get between
10 and 200 sponsors in a weekend. Their call team works very hard to build relationships with parishes around the country so their priests can visit and talk about Unbound. Clair told us they have
a big celebration with ringing of cowbells when they get a yes from a
church! Their Outreach section also includes people working with
more current technology including social media to spread their cause
as well as working with sponsors like us who have an idea to try to
raise money or get sponsors. We asked them how many people are
currently awaiting sponsorship and were told 17,000!
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| Meeting area where they hold meetings and weekly Mass |
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| Scott, Clair, Larry and Erica |
Another area of
the Unbound offices houses people who work with sponsors to answer
questions and make sure the right information goes to the right
people. We learned on our Mission Awareness trip that if a sponsor
requests it, they can send the social worker for the project to the
sponsored child or elders home to see if there are any specific needs
for the family beyond the monthly benefit. For example, one of the
people we were with in Mexico learned that her elder had no stove, and arranged
to have one purchased to make her life easier. Some of our friends
from the Mexico trip are looking into funding their sponsored
children's college! Some of the fine folks in Kansas help make this
magic happen! There is an international section working with the
projects themselves and a travel section that coordinates all the
Mission Awareness trips. We were so happy to see Joanna who had been
one of the leaders on our trip to the Merida project to meet Yessica
and find a new child to sponsor, Kareli. We felt privileged that the President and CEO of Unbound, Scott Wasserman, took the time to sit with us,
thank us and talk about Unbound. When we asked him about the
frustration we have had in some people reacting to Unbound as not
being Catholic enough and others reacting that it is too Catholic, he
understood and helped explain. They use the teachings of the
Catholic Church on social justice as their principle in Unbound.
Scott said one of the many reasons they use these principles is
because they work. Unbound is not just a handout and distribution of
goods or money. “At Unbound, we believe in the wisdom of
mothers. We work with each family to determine what they need most.
Mothers are empowered to form support networks to provide
encouragement, build friendships and help each other. With our
highly personalized program, families are able to utilize their
unique skills and talents to build paths out of poverty. Unbound is
an international nonprofit grounded in the Gospel call to put the
needs of the marginalized and vulnerable first. We offer
opportunity, support and encouragement to children, elders and their
families so they can live with dignity and achieve their desired
potential. Working side by side with people of diverse faith in 20
countries, we bring people together to challenge poverty in new and
innovative ways.”
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| We think this photo speaks for itself! |
Erica
went to Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, which is a famous barbeque spot in Kansas
City, waited in a long line and treated us to a delicious lunch in Unbound's lunch room. It
was delectably delicious!!! Thank you!! Erica has been tweeting out
our story on our journey and publishing PR releases. We met many wonderful dedicated staff at
Unbound. We noticed that in all the cubicles, it was very quiet.
People were hard at work! In the lunchroom, it was different with a
great sense of community where everyone was visiting and enjoying
their time together. We were made to feel part of that community.
After
lunch, Clair finished our tour. We got to see the mail room, which
had thousands of letters from sponsored friends. This is where the
letters get sent out to the sponsors. They have many volunteers from
the area that assist with this. One of the requirements besides
staying in school of being sponsored is to write regular letters to
their sponsors. We know how much these letters and drawings mean to
us and we have all of ours saved. We brought them with us to Mexico,
and this was one of the favorite things we brought for Yessica to
see. She loved looking at the drawings and letters she had written
us through the years. It really builds a relationship of people and
crosses all cultural differences with friendship!
We
are truly grateful for all the time that was spent with us at the
Unbound office. We have believed in the work of Unbound since the
day a priest came to our parish about 5 years ago. Our belief was
boosted further after seeing the work that is done in the projects on
our Mission Awareness trip to Merida. After visiting the Unbound
offices we were still further impressed by the people, the dedication
and the mission! Thank you to all of you, including all the numerous folks whose names I did not mention.
To
read more about Unbound please see
To
donate or sponsor, please see
Thank you for visiting Unbound and it was great to see you both again!
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