Unity

Last week, I was invited to attend an event on behalf of Kathy Ireland who received a Woman of Achievement Award through her partnership with the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. I have learned through knowing Kathy that she is a philanthropist with a huge heart, supporting many different charities. Receiving an award like this was much deserved, because she works so hard to help others.

Attending this event was a very powerful experience for me. Kathy Ireland is very strong in her Christian faith, and most in attendance were Jewish. We began our prayers with a Jewish prayer and broke bread together in the Jewish tradition. The entire message of this wonderful event was one of Unity – of looking beyond individual faiths and beliefs to come together to help those in need.

Kathy is quoted in this article on Yahoo Finance before receiving this award:

“The extraordinary work of Sheba Medical Center is critical to Israel and all Nations. It is essential that Jews and Christians come together to support the wonderful hope and inspiration that is accomplished at Sheba everyday. The doors of Sheba are open to all people. . .race, gender, religion do not matter to the wonderful people who devote their lives to helping others heal. My prayer is to be able to contribute in some small way to the magnificent work of all those who support Sheba Medical Center," shared Kathy Ireland.

During the talks at the event, I learned that at Sheba, Palestinian babies lie next to Jewish babies in the newborn nursery. The hospital is a place of healing, in ways more than just medicine. In a world that often has so much division, what a wonderful message to hear.

So you might ask yourself, where do Chinese orphans come into this picture? We have always talked about how we are a worldwide foundation, where helping orphans in the very best way is our daily mission. This world might have just got smaller, as Kathy invited me to meet with Emeritus Director of Sheba Medical Center, Prof. Mordechai Shani, and the Executive Director of Friends of Sheba Medical Center, Jack Saltzberg. I hope through this meeting that we might be able to introduce Sheba to hospitals in China….to widen this message of Unity. We are all one people…..a worldwide group….working to better the lives of all.

Karen Maunu

Changing the Lives of Orphans in China