You are just the kind of person the Sullivan Ballou Fund seeks to recognize and affirm. You have devoted your life to protecting the human rights of the poor and powerless. Nothing is more important to the maintenance of a free society than requiring police and security force to follow the law and respect the rights of all suspects and offenders. We are all in danger when the police can’t be trusted. When it began to appear that individuals in the Chicago Police Department were abusing, torturing, and framing helpless suspects, you We know of your tireless work as Country Director for Village Health Works. Any humanitarian project depends on effective organization and administration. Someone has to attend to all the practical details, many of which are difficult or tedious or decidedly unglamorous. We understand that you fulfill this essential function for Village Health Works, and that you do it with tireless energy and good cheer. Many people in this area of Burndi owe their improved health to your organizational skills. And even more important, this project, which you so helpfully administer, has brought hope and a sense of community to a people in despair over conflict and war and still leery of each other. It is a beacon of light in a dark period in Burndi.
Your contributions and spirit were honored at a special gathering at our home in Minneapolis, Minnesota today. In attendance besides the two of us, founders of the Sullivan Ballou Fund, were Fund directors Susan and Dean Thomson, Dziwe Ntaba, Dziwe’s mother Jane, and his aunt, Mary Ursu. Dziewe showed us slides of Village Health Works’ clinic and patients and described to us the work being done and the inspirational impact it has had on the spirit of the beleaguered community. We talked about how the energy behind your project is the energy that will heal the world. At the close of our gathering, Elissa read this quote from the book of Isaiah, chapter 43 verses 18 and 19:
Forget the former things,
Do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
And streams in the wasteland.
Pictures of the gathering honoring you are enclosed. Through them and this letter we send you our love and respect.
It has been a pleasure to learn of you and your work. We hope this award will in some small way affirm for you the rightness of your path and the value of your efforts. We are behind you. We would be honored if you would let us know in the coming months how you used this award and how it affected you. Congratulations!Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members