MENDING KIDS INTERNATIONAL
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July 3, 2012
Mending Kids is an organization that is run with the highest integrity and genuine love. Every person (from staff to volunteers) involved is motivated by their hearts first and the bottom dollar next. Every decision made is scrutinized to help the most children possible around the globe with life-saving surgeries. The children that come to us have no other options and are always treated as if they were one of our own. Additionally, we only choose mission destinations in which we can educate and train local doctors to provide sustainable programs. MKI is an organization that I am humbled and proud to be part of.
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Will you volunteer or donate to this organization beyond what is required of board members?
Definitely
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
Life-changing
Will you tell others about this organization?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2012
July 1, 2012
Mending Kids is an incredible organization. I work in Africa as part of another non-profit and frequently run into urgent medical cases, where desperate in-country doctors and parents have no where to turn to save the lives of their children. I've sent MANY parents and doctors to Mending Kids International and they've literally saved their lives at a moment's notice - providing airfare for a girl with a brain tumor from Liberia, heart surgery for a group of critically-ill kids from Rwanda - so many stories - too many to even list here. Trust me - these people are providing one of the most incredible services to the world I've ever seen or heard of.
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How does this organization compare with others in the same sector?
Very Well
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
Life-changing
Will you recommend this organization to others?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2012
June 30, 2012
Mending Kids does outstanding work in Guatemala, and I am sure maintains the same level of professionalism and quality everywhere they work. I was especially impressed with their desire to learn from local resources, and with their diligence in preparation for their first trip. Excellent group!
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How does this organization compare with others in the same sector?
Very Well
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
Life-changing
Will you recommend this organization to others?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2011
June 30, 2012
I know do MKI through my daughter who went on a mission recently with them to Haiti. They are dedicated to the health and welfare of children theoughout the world -- they are creating health for the future of our world!
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Will you volunteer or donate to this organization?
Likely
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
Life-changing
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2012
June 29, 2012
I have been involved with charities that benefit children for over 25 years and Mending the Kids International (MKI) is definiitely at the top of my list! I have been attending MKI fund raisers for about three years and am always impressed by the genuine loving nature of all involved not to mention that the events are always a blast! The last event i attended was a yacht cruise and golf event at Pelican Golf Resort in Newport Beach.
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Was your donation impactful?
Definitely
How likely is it that you would recommend that a friend donate to this group?
Definitely
How likely are you to donate to this group again?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2012
June 29, 2012
The Saga of Selina
Today (23 October 2009) I visited Selina’s place. First I visited Selina’s mother. The house she lives in looked as haggard and rough as their careworn bodies. The hut is stuffed with cheap furniture. Selina’s mother became busy preparing my snacks. I wondered how they all live in such a meagre accommodation. Magrib Azan was going on so I stood to say my prayers. As the floor was unplastered and dusty she spread a sheet on the bed covered with torn bed sheet and oily old pillows. The fan almost touched my head. So I had to bend forward while praying. The percentage of poor practicing Muslim is very marginal. None of Salina’s family says their prayers. It seems poverty has taken them from their Lord. Or sometimes they think there is no God except what they do with their bare hands.
I imagined this is the very bed wherefrom Selina was pushed away when she one day came to visit her mother from her husband’s family. Selina was beaten mercilessly for slyly marrying Mulkul, a black complexioned lad of formidable built but of little education. From then on nightmares haunted her. Poverty of her husband took away her beauty and romance and friction between the two families aggravated her nightmares. Then as if to add insult to injury came Maya who was born with severe cleft on her face. Now let me tell the rest of the saga.
Selina, a beautiful black complexioned poor agile school going girl, fell in love with Mukul who comes of a butcher family. Mukul’s father used to buy goats from far flung village for slaughter in the Lapur market. Butchers are not held in esteem here in Bangladesh. So this angered Selina’s ambitious mother whose family is comparatively well off than Mukul’s. When Selina just entered the college, Selina’s beauty and education brought many proposals. Her parents had dream about her but she, they thought, shattered their hope by marrying Mukul slyly one day. This family feud invited anger to her from both families. She was in dire dilemma. When one day maltreatment and Mukul’s poverty pushed her to her mother’s family, Selina was pushed off the bed and mercilessly beaten by her own brother who owns a small shoe shop. But her unwavering love for Mulul and courage carried her through. But when Maya was born it seemed to her that she came to growl at her with her cleft face. People told her to kill the baby to save the family from a bad name and the child from lifelong social stigma. But can a mother kill her own child? Can a golden soul nurture hatred for a child only for her disability?
Days went on and Maya remained hung from the neck of Selina and her family like a dead albatross. Albatross in ‘The Ancient Mariner’ brought good luck to the sailors but the ancient Mariner killed it one day. Initially, other crew members denounced the killing but when they saw that things got better in spite of the crime they accepted the killing positively. Thus they acquiesced to the crime and were killed by an angel. The same thing happened in the case of Maya. Only difference is Maya’s haters are still alive. When Maya’s presence in the shoe shop helped develop the business, only then Selina’s brother accepted Maya and Selina’s marriage to Mukul. Most of the people thus are guided by expediency rather than principle.
Selina took her daughter here and there. None could help them till a medical team from Mendingkids Hospital in Los Angeles came to Dhaka. The team saw Maya, took her photograph and later sent some forms to be filled in and sent to them. It seemed Selina and Mukul saw light at the end of the tunnel. I visited Selina’s room. The room is clear of furniture that were sold to obtain money for passport and visa. Only the unplastered brick walls are decorated with embroidered pictures by Selina. A picture of a female face written with Rudyard Kipling’s famous line-‘the female of the species is more deadly than the male’ struck me with a paradox. How can it be? Is Selina deadly? Then I came to a conclusion that yes, Selina is deadly resolute to withstand all odds for her daughter and her husband. I woke up from my confusion but it seemed I heard a forlorn cry in there as Selina’s touch is on the wall but the reality is Selina is now in Mendingkids, Los Angeles, America with Maya. I don’t know whether I’m happy or sad. Selina will return with mended Maya to the jaw of poverty again. Are their any souls there to protect this flower from scorching poverty?
By
Abdus Subhan
Assistant Professor of English
Ishwardi Govt. College, Pabna, Bangladesh
More feedback...
Would you volunteer for this group again?
Definitely
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
A lot
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2012
1 person found this review helpful
April 26, 2011
1 person found this review helpful
I have spent two semesters as an unpaid intern for Mending Kids International. What I find amazing is the dedication of this small staff and their true love for the children they help and their families. Mending Kids International goes into countries where children have either no physical access to live saving surgeries that we take for granted in the United States or where they are turned away because they do not have the money to pay for the surgeries. I have seen them work tirelessly to identify children in need and to collaborate with organizations that exist in the areas where they work to improve self-sustainability. I am proud to be involved with this organization.
The Great!
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
watching how much they have grown over just the past year, expanding their mission to include a desire to help developing nations become more self-sustaining in pediatric surgical care. Also, when following the organization on Facebook, I see families who have been helped by the organization comment on their wall, thanking them for saving their child.
Ways to make it better...
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
continue to do what they are doing. That is, continue working toward a mission of helping develop self-sustaining programs in developing countries.
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