HISTORY AND OVERVIEW
How We Started: The Global Landmine Problem (2000-2004)
In March 1999, Mark Hyman organized a human rights symposium at Tenafly Middle School at which dozens of presentations were delivered to the student body. Our keynote speaker, Ken Rutherford, gave a riveting testimony of his encounter with landmines in Somalia, where he lost both of his legs. His remarkable story of tragedy and recovery inspired the formation of the Landmine Awareness Club in the fall of 1999 with Mark as the students’ faculty advisor. After discussion and research, the Club set the goal of raising $30,000 to sponsor the removal of landmines from a Bosnian village called Podzvizd. This youth-led humanitarian endeavor, in turn, inspired the founding of Global Care Unlimited, Inc. by Mark Hyman in February 2000 to support this extraordinary global service objective. Global Care’s ensuing landmine initiatives lasted until 2004, leading to the demining of two Bosnian villages and the rehabilitation of Cambodian landmine survivors.
Click here to learn more about our landmine initiatives: Landmine Removal Initiative (2000-2002) and Symposium on Cambodia & Landmines (2004)
Expanding Our Mission: The Cambodian Humanitarian Initiative (2004-2006)
Following our successful Symposium on Cambodia and Landmines initiative, our Tenafly global citizenship community decided to widen the focus of our service beyond landmines. At the same time, we wanted to remain focused on the geographic region of Cambodia. To accomplish this goal, Global Care organized a youth leadership conference called, “Eye on Cambodia” in 2004 and a two week Youth Delegation trip to Cambodia in 2005. The knowledge acquired from these experiences guided our Tenafly global citizenship community – now called the “Global Care Club” - to select several service objectives to promote the educational and cultural needs of Cambodian children.
Click here to learn more about this initiative: Cambodian Humanitarian Initiative (2005-2006)
A BOLD NEW MISSION: SCHOOL-BUILDING IN ETHIOPIA (2007-Present)
In spring 2007 three important turning points occurred for Global Care. First, the Tenafly Middle School Global Care Club decided to switch its focus to access to education and its geographic focus to Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on Ethiopia. For our service goal, we decided to sponsor construction of a Pre-K to Grade 12 school in Ethiopia. Second, we met an extraordinary service partner for our goal: Ethiopian literacy advocate and 2008 CNN Hero, Yohannes Gebregeorgis. Third, Global Care welcomed another global citizenship community into our family: the Demarest Middle School Global Care Club led by teacher, Jon Regan. To date, this partnership of global citizenship communities has raised $80,000 to sponsor construction of 12 rooms, a bus and electricity for our Ethiopian partner school: The Ethio-American Friendship School.
Click here to learn more about our current initiative and partner school, The Ethio-American Friendship School: Ethiopian School Construction Initiative (2007-present)
