PHOTO PROVIDED / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
HELPING IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES … The founder and executive director of Finding Freedom through Friendship, a non-profit organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, recently told Archbold Rotarians how the organization that she started in 2009 has developed six programs that are used in five impoverished countries to give hope for women and children. From left: Jody Greenlee, executive director of FFF; Bob Aschliman, who arranged the program; and FFF board members Lisa Anfous and Betsy Anderson.
PRESS RELEASE – Women and their children in parts of Guatemala, Egypt, the Congo, Madagascar and Tajikistan are getting the resources that they need to transform their lives and break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness thanks to a non-profit organization – Finding Freedom through Friendship (FFF) that was organized as a 501(c)3 non-profit nearly 15 years ago.
Its founder and executive director Jody Greenlee explained how the group that started with one program for widows and their children in Guatemala in 2009 has evolved to include six programs offered in five countries around the world.
It has raised and spent $1.5 million to empower women since then. She told Archbold Rotarians that all FFF officers and board members are volunteers who work with coordinators (who are paid small salaries) in the various countries to implement FFF programs.
FFF also works with several non-profits such as Water for Life Ministries and Blessings International Medicines for Missions when those groups’ mission can help FFF enhance the programs that they offer women.
“If we can shore up a mother with resources that she needs,” Greenlee explained, “then she can become the mother that she was meant to be (for her children).”
The support that they need to develop long-term sustainability varies, and FFF has programs designed to meet each need.
For example, the need may be lodging (building, renovation or rent), nutrition or food, healthcare, clean water, education for the women’s children or training for themselves to develop the ability to earn money to support their family.
The six programs include:
-Widow program in Guatemala, Egypt and Tajikstan
-Tutoring program in Egypt and Guatemala
-Community development in Egypt, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Microfinance program in Egypt and the Congo
-Scholarship program for high achieving students for college or technical education in Egypt and the Congo.
-Community health and humanitarian relief in Egypt, Guatemala and Madagascar.
Greenlee said that since FFF is volunteer led, they rely on local, paid coordinators to run the programs in each country.
Their efforts started in Guatemala where Greenlee had contacts from working on mission trips before starting FFF.
The group’s chief financial officer is Marguerite Doyle who grew up in Egypt, the daughter of a missionary family, so she had contacts in that region.
To learn more about FFF, visit their website: www.finding-freedom-through-friendship.org/