John Mary Receives The Innovative Community Builders Award

June 1, 2010 | Filed under: Blog | Posted by: urfblog

In January 2010, John Mary received The Innovative Community Builders Award from Community Capacity Builders, LLC in partnership with the Social Innovators Design Group, and the New World Tribe, in Virginia recognizing him for his “dedicated service to the community” in rural Uganda through Uganda Rural Fund. Community Capacity Builders recognizes outstanding social activists for their courageous work. In their words, the citation read: “We feel honored to know you, and to walk alongside you in the work you d to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children and families in rural Uganda.” John Mary decided to allocate the award money to the educational needs and for the kids at the Nazareth Children’s Home in Masaka.

As a co-founder, executive vice president, and international volunteer coordinator, John Mary has worked tirelessly, together with colleagues at Uganda Rural Fund, to build up rural communities while empowering people to help themselves, through educational and sutainable development opportunities at the grassroots level. Under his leadership, the URF team has built up a very successful community organization from scratch. Since 2005, URF has has built and operated a secondary school for orphans providing quality education to 134 kids, partnered with Engineers Without Boarders at University of Minnesota and Virginia Tech to bring clean water and solar energy to a rural village, launched a village banking program, assisted women start small businesses, organized youth camps and community seminars, secured sponsorship for over 50 children, built homes for child-headed families, supported an orphanage with 19 kids, and has registered many other achievements.

John Mary has previously won various other awards including; the International Peace Award in Washington, DC, the Inspiring a Shared Vision Award, and Excellence in Leadership Award from the College of St. Benedict’s and St. John’s University in Minnesota, the Peace and Justice Award from the Hawkinson Foundation in Minnesota, and was once nominated for the Caritas Award at Saint John’s University.