FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: ?Connie Pacillo
Phone: 207.712.6543
Email: connie.pacillo@creativecontentpartners.com
LEWISTON, Maine, July 1, 2013 – Representatives from two Maine-based non-governmental organizations – Horn of Africa Aid and Rehabilitation Action Network (HAARAN) and Living With Peace (LWP) – are headed to East Africa July 3 to bring much needed aid and address the extreme challenges faced by the disabled.
Making the journey are Abdi Noor Matan, president of Lewiston-based HAARAN, and Christina Feller, co-founder of Portland-based LWP.
Their goals for this trip are to deliver medical supplies and develop a long-range action plan that includes empowering the disenfranchised to build upon their existing skills to achieve a better future for themselves and their families.
“We have been asked to come to make a proper assessment of the situation,” said Matan, “In order to prepare an action plan to help empower these people to be able to lead a better life.”
Today, Matan and his wife run the popular Blue Nile Café in Lewiston. Prior to immigrating to the US, he was a refugee living in the Dadaab Camp in Northeast Kenya. A polio survivor, Matan worked diligently and was promoted several times eventually becoming one of the camp’s chief registration clerks.
“The disabled are no different,” Matan said, “But they are seen as different by many. That is why we must help them to realize they can achieve great things and aspire to make the most of their lives just like anyone else, despite what others think.”
Feller, whose group LWP helps immigrants integrate into their new environments, is proud to partner on this mission. “Two years ago I helped lead a medical mission on behalf of Atlantic Global Aid and we delivered hundreds of pounds of supplies to a rural hospital,” she said, “This time we are bringing supplies, as well as the intangible of helping a disenfranchised group to begin the long process of empowering themselves.”
Feller is Managing Principal of Heritage Health Consulting and Publishing, LLC, a firm that provides educational materials across South Sudan through a Cloud-based publishing firm. All the books are in English and the local languages of the school districts. She hopes to expand this business to other countries in East Africa using local micro-entrepreneur partners. The Horn of Africa Aid group is also a partner with Partners for Health, LLC that is based in Augusta, Maine. Michelle Mitchell, managing principal of Partners for Health, LLC, is playing a key role in the planning and implementation of the future work the organization will be doing in East Africa.
For more information about this group please email president Matan at matannoor@yahoo.com or cfeller@maine.rr.com.
###