CARRIES HEART
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Mission Statement
Carrie's Heart is a Houston based non-profit organization that provides support for children with disabilities locally and in the Southern Mayan Zone region of Mexico.
About This Cause
Carrie’s Heart, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Houston, Texas is dedicated to improving the education, community involvement and overall quality of life of children with disabilities worldwide. The central belief driving our mission is the recognition that all children, despite their disability or economic status, deserve to have basic needs met such as food, clothing and medical care, as well as the opportunity to enrich their souls and minds, allowing them to achieve their greatest potential. Our Story from "Heart of a Warrior" acceptance speech by Founder & President Carrie Conn About 6 years into my teaching career, I became restless. I’m a huge Oprah fan and was inspired by her discussions of finding your “authentic self”. I had found my passion for working with children with disabilities, discovered the love of travel….and had been given a donated wheelchair that needed a child. In literally sitting down and writing out lists & ideas of how I could use my life experiences and merge my passions together, the vision of my organization “Carrie’s Heart” was born. Born from the desire to share with others here, in Mexico and one day around the world what I feel in my heart. To open hearts and minds to love and accept ALL children and to see their endless potential. The mantra that has led my work with Carrie’s Heart has been my favorite quote by Gandhi – “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. I set out to be that change. My bus rides switched to airlines flights and my journey led me to the Yucatan region of Mexico looking for a child for that donated wheelchair. Lugging with me suitcases stuffed full of donated teaching materials. My initial plan was to help provide a bridge between donated resources that are essentially discarded in the US with children and teachers who can use them. What I found was that “my” children – the children with the most involved disabilities are not in the schools. So I began looking. And I found Valerie. Not by chance. What I have learned in my work is that nothing happens by chance. That day in March 2006, I set out to take donations to a special education school on the island of Cozumel. Or so I thought. Twists of fate and the right people being placed in my path, at the right time instead put us on a child find mission seeking out the children that I had hoped to find. We visited the homes of 12 children that day. It literally felt like we went around one corner & then the next visiting child after child. Each home environment and the condition of each child got worse and worse. I knew when we were led through a narrow alley way to makeshift stairs leading up to a concrete roof top that it was not looking good. A young woman was scrambling to get a key to open a padlock on the door of a rooftop shack. Inside was Valerie. Alone. Valerie was laying on her back in an oversized t-shirt, with un-kept hair and large, watchful eyes. She was 9 years old, nonverbal with cerebral palsy. Literally lying there alone in a state of severe mal – nutrition. She was starving to death. It was a horrifying scene. But what I noticed right away was the awareness in her eyes. She was in there. This is the day I truly became a Warrior. I had set out looking for these hidden children. I had found them. I knew they were there. Was I going to just leave and shut the door as others had done? Was I meant to help? If not you, who? The overwhelming feeling that came to me that day was “she’s yours”. I didn’t know what that meant. I just knew that I came looking & now I could not turn and just walk away. The fight for Valerie’s life began. I returned home and within 2 months we were able to get her to Houston into the care of a Warrior doctor willing to have a gastric feeding tube placed so that she could receive the nutrients that she was unable to swallow on her own. A simple “fix” in our world, not so simple in countries where there is no support for children like Valerie. This is happening all over the world. The reality is even worse in countries where these children hold no value and are left to die or are institutionalized from birth. Valerie’s story was very complex with a young single mother from a very dysfunctional family who preferred to run the streets rather than care for her disabled daughter. Once Valerie was back home we struggled for years working with her family on her care. Valerie was eventually removed from the home by the government after being found alone again. Only to be returned again a year later for political reasons. Her death following shortly after. I have seen firsthand the insides of a defunct “social services” agency and corrupt political system in a country that doesn’t see any value of putting resources into the care of a child like Valerie. Valerie was mine. She was my heart child, she was my teacher. She was the first I helped and the first that passed away. Her passing was very difficult for me and I struggled with whether or not I was supposed to continue my work. If not you, who? In Valerie’s name we have gone on to improve the quality of life of many more children throughout the Yucatan. We began with three children – Valerie and two others with the most critical needs that we met that same fated day. Over the years we became connected to more & more children through word of mouth of our work and through contacts in the communities we serve. As we brought in more children we began bringing down medical mission teams from Houston to help evaluate their needs and guide us in their care. We then opened small centers on the island of Cozumel and down in the Southern Mayan Zone where our children began receiving therapy and participating in social activities. Our mothers now receive training and resources to help them in the daily care of their child. They have community, a home away from home where they can join together with other mothers who share a common life path. Most importantly, our children are no longer hidden. I have been blessed to be protected and provided for each step of the way. The needed resources and people have always come when needed. When a door has shut, another door has open. I listen to my heart and follow my intuition to guide the path of our work. We are now being led to increase our efforts in the Mayan communities where the needs are immense and access to medical care, resources and education is very limited. Working with the true warriors – children and mothers who are fighting against the odds in conditions that most of us here cannot even imagine. We are now working in the small Mayan communities, in the palm roofed huts that I saw through the bus window years ago and vowed to return to…not by chance.