By Carole Townsend
Staff correspondent

Justina Fileccia is a 12-year-old Sugar Hill girl with a passion — or rather, a compassion — for people.
Justina has taken up the cause of the Nicaraguan victims of Hurricane Mitch. Through an organization called Amigos for Christ, which is based in Buford, Justina learned of the extreme poverty and poor living conditions of the survivors of this devastating storm.
For more than four years, Justina has done whatever she can to raise money to help these people so far away from her home. That’s right — she was only 7 years old when she began her fundraising efforts.
“When I first heard about [Hurricane Mitch], I felt so bad,” she said. “I have so much and those people have so little.”
So, she set about going door-to-door selling items that the Nicaraguan people had made — cards, wooden carvings, stuffed bears. Anything they would send, she would sell.
Through a fundraising bike race event called Pedal for the Poor, now in its fifth year, Justina competes against herself to earn more money than she did the previous year —and she has. In fact, Justina has raised more than $4,000 to help the families in Nicaragua still living in squalor. That $4,000 will build a house in Nicaragua to take one family out of the desperate conditions they’re living in.
“We’re so proud of her,” said Stacey Fileccia, Justina’s mother. “I feel that we have to thank John Bland, director of Amigos for Christ, for teaching Justina and other children about the plight of these people and how they can help.”
Bland takes his entire family to Nicaragua every summer to help the Nicaraguan people. He takes surgeons and other professionals who can greatly improve the lives of these people. Amigos for Christ has been able to build a hospital, schools and even supply a mobile medical clinic.
“I got to meet some of the boys from the Nicaraguan Getsemani Boys Choir, and they’re really nice,” Justina said. The choir comes to the United States to raise money for the schools in Nicaragua. Justina’s father, Dave, has traveled to Nicaragua several times on mission trips, and it has been her desire to go with him one day.
Amigos for Christ awarded her with a trip to Nicaragua next spring break, and now she is trying to raise money for her father to go with her.
“I just want to do my part,” Justina said.
“These people really appreciate what you do for them, and they work hard to help themselves,” said Justina.
Justina and her family are members of Prince of Peace Catholic church in Buford. For more information about Amigos for Christ, Pedal for the Poor or the Nicaraguan survivors, call 770 614-9250 or visit http://www.amigosforchrist.org/.