I heard about Marycare from its president, my dear friend Anne Bates, and I was immediately struck by the grass-roots nature of this organization. Their latest projects are under the guidance of Nigerian doctors and nurses and leaders and Fr. Emmanuel, a Nigerian priest who is pastor of 2 parishes in Hartford, Connecticut. With their hep Marycare has brought clean water to the priest's home village, Umuoduwa, one of the five villages of Ejemekwuru, a town of 10,000 people in Imo State in rural Nigeria. This means that the children previously taking hours to fetch unclean water from the river can now be in school, and that the mortality rate has declined dramatically. And Marycare has also recently built a medical clinic in Ejemekwuru and it is already attracting patients from the region at large, an area completely lacking in medical facilities. The doctors and nurses are all Nigerian, and are eagerly awaiting extensive medical supplies and equipment which Marycare will be sending over from the USA in the next few months. Marycare always collaborates with the community leaders already in place--that way there is a mutual giving and receiving. 95% of Marycare's donations go directly to its programs because of the completely volunteer staff in the USA.
Review from Guidestar