 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
Our History Amigos for Christ is an international nonprofit organization based in Buford, Georgia. It began at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in 1997, when youth leader John Bland and a friend, Gary Caprara, traveled to Chinandega, Nicaragua, looking for a service project for the high school students. In Nicaragua, they witnessed starving children scavenging the city dump for food, their families mired in hopeless poverty nearby. John recorded the scene on video and showed it to the young people back home. Led by students Sarah Bollinger and Jessica Keifer, they responded by raising money for a local school cafeteria through a series of fundraisers. The situation in Nicaragua reached dramatic proportions when Hurricane Mitch struck on October 30, 1998.
Las Casitas volcano overflowed and mudslides destroyed several farming villages, killing 3000 and displacing hundreds of families around Chinandega. The Prince of Peace group took their first mission trip to Chinandega in April of 1999, when 20 teens and 18 adults spent spring break working on a housing project. The grim reality of the situation in Nicaragua affected everyone in the group. Spearheaded by this group and with the help of many loyal volunteers, Amigos for Christ was formed as an independent 501C (3) charity in June of 1999, with John as Executive Director. The first president of Amigos for Christ was Jack Schiveree. Since then, Amigos for Christ has flourished into an interdenominational service ministry that embraces all. We have provided over 19 million dollars in aid to the poor. Our focus is in strengthening families without resources, through our community housing, medical, educational, clean water, small business cooperative and agricultural programs in rural Nicaragua.
Our efforts have resulted in the construction of St. Martin de Porres Surgical Hospital, which serves all of Chinandega and surrounding areas with rotating volunteer surgical teams from around the United States and abroad. We staff and maintain health clinics, schools and feeding centers in several rural settlements. Along with other local and international organizations, we established and completed 4 building projects for the victims of Hurricane Mitch. The Villa Esperanza project, which consisted of 50 homes, was completed in 1999. The Miguel Cristiano project, which consisted of 29 homes, was completed in July 2000. The San Marcos project, which consisted of almost 200 homes, was completed in August 2000. Santa Matilde community, for over 300 families, was completed in 2003. We are now developing Villa Catalina, home to 120 more destitute families. These families, along with those at Santa Matilde, were rescued from years of deplorable living conditions in El Limonal, the plastic and cardboard tent city beside the Chinandega city dump. Over 1000 people have traveled to Nicaragua on mission trips with us. Working side by side with the native families, we bridge language and cultural barriers. Our generous donors and volunteers have blessed us with the resources to grow and spread our faith through positive action.
|
|
