Holiday Gift 2023
From everyone here at the
MDNA team –
Happy Holidays!
May your celebrations be warm and filled with peace, joy, and hope.
Our Gift This Year
Every year, we like to give back to the community with our holiday gift-giving. This year, we wanted to help our refugee neighbors, forced for so many reasons to flee their homes and begin again.
In the words of Mr. Rogers, we looked for the helpers. We looked for highly respected charitable organizations to help refugees on global and national levels and found two that we really like. Our donations this year will be going to the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Charities USA. Learn more about these organizations below.
International Rescue Committee
Founded at the call of Albert Einstein in 1933, the IRC is now at work in over 50 crisis-affected countries as well as communities throughout Europe and the Americas. We deliver lasting impact by providing health care, helping children learn, and empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant, always seeking to address the inequalities facing women and girls.
Here are just a few highlights of the work they’ve done:
- In 2022, the IRC’s Resettlement, Asylum and Integration (RAI) teams served 308,174 clients —177,860 in the U.S. and 130,314 in Europe.
- Supported 122,390 children in IRC safe spaces and other protection programs
- Provided 186,491 individuals with livelihood support
- Supported 3,137 health facilities
- Provided 8,013,515 primary health care consultations
- Treated 222,278 children under 5 for severe acute malnutrition
- Admitted 453,344 children and 106,722 pregnant and lactating women to nutrition programs
- Built or rehabilitated water supplies serving 3,490,159 people
Catholic Charities USA
CCUSA works to help people, regardless of their faith, who are struggling with poverty and other complex issues. Their advocacy and disaster relief programs makes tangible progress toward providing help and hope to our neighbors across the country.
Catholic Charities USA was founded in 1910 as the National Conference of Catholic Charities, to deliver social and legal services to people from poorer backgrounds, including immigrant communities. They are highly rated on both Charity Navigator and GuideStar.
In 2015, they welcomed their first female president, highlighting their commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace. As a women-owned company, this spoke to us of an organization looking to the future.
Since their inception, Catholic Charities USA have assisted thousands of immigrants and refugees during their resettlement in the US. In 2020 alone, they filed over 3,600 immigration applications with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In the same year, they resettled 2,729 refugees. Of those refugees, more than 500 found jobs with Catholic Charities’ assistance.
Image from: www.ccofchicagovolunteer.com/refugees-immigrants
Would you like to give with us?
In looking for and highlighting some of the world’s helpers, and by empowering them to continue their work, we are looking to spread that hope Mr. Rogers talked about. During these times of celebration, we wish you a season of hope and peace.