A Visit to Takengon
“Every single person in this room is going to help me change the world”
Such were the words of one of the most inspirational women I have ever met. Her name was Eleanor Josaitis. She watched the Detroit riots in 1967 with deep sadness and frustration. “How?” she wondered, “can I ever make a difference?”
She was a loving housewife and mother of five, but had no experience raising funds or building programs. Yet she was determined to help the thousands of people facing poverty and injustice in her community. She told me, “I didn’t know how – but I started with one step and one idea — you have to start. You have to have the guts to try something.”
Since that time 42 years ago, Focus: HOPE has trained more than 8,000 individuals with technical skills and served the equivalent of 10 million meals to impoverished families and seniors. When you look at Eleanor in person she is a five-foot tall “dynamo” lit by a fire burning bright from within. She is a person of deep faith and conscience. Though they were born a distance apart in time and geography, she and GiveLight’s Dian Alyan are sisters in spirit.