The moving story of Childhelp by Sara O' Meara and Yvonne Fedderson
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SARA O' MEARA
Since 1959, Sara O’Meara has provided leadership in humanitarian service to children throughout the world. As Childhelp® Co-Founder, Mrs. O’Meara is actively involved in the development and oversight of the leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. Childhelp’s approach focuses on prevention, intervention and treatment. The organization has put a national spotlight on the problem of child abuse in America and developed cutting-edge solutions.
YVONNE FEDDERSON
For more than four decades, Yvonne Fedderson has devoted her life to helping needy children. As a Childhelp® co-founder, Mrs. Fedderson is actively involved in the development and oversight of a leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. Childhelp’s approach focuses on prevention, intervention and treatment. As president of Childhelp, Mrs. Fedderson’s focus is upon developing and supporting the organization’s more than 25 chapters and auxiliaries. More than 2,500 volunteers nationwide organize fund-raising events in their communities, which raise more than $2 million annually.
The majority of people when they hear stories of abuse or injustice whether it be to human or animal, shake their heads sadly, decry the act and move on with their lives. If they have the means, they may write a check; feeling as if they've at least done something, but that is an end to it until the next sad story comes along.
A small minority are moved to act. These are the ones that change lives, they are the 'angels' on earth. Sara O' Meara and Yvonne Fedderson belong to the second group. It's not always easy to have faith in a dream when fate continuously puts obstacles in your way, but as Dorothy said to Michaela once in Dr. Quinn- "Keeping promises is easy when it's convenient. But easy don't count for much."
And it was rarely easy for these two as they set out on faith; trusting that their mission of healing the broken children of the world was God's will for them. Time and time again, they did the impossible, trusting in miracles.
The result of this lifelong journey has been Childhelp, one of the largest non-profit child abuse prevention and treatment agencies in the nation. Because of the courage and persistence of these two women and those who helped them to bring their dream to life, over 3 million children who have suffered the most heinous forms of abuse, most often at the hands of the ones they trusted most, have learned as one survivor put it, "to not be afraid to be held and hugged" to learn of a different kind of love.
As a celebrity ambassador for Childhelp, Jane Seymour has helped to break the silence that so many of these children have been locked in. Like Sara and Yvonne, Jane belongs to that second group, those who are not merely touched by the plight of those less fortunate but are determined to do something about it.
We can all be part of this mission to help these children find a voice and even when it seems as if noone is listening, again to quote Dorothy from Dr. Quinn, "Well then we'll just have to speak louder."
Recently, as a prelude to adding a charity section to our web site, we reached out to Childhelp to ask if they might have time to answer a few questions we had about their organization and Jane's involvement. Sara and Yvonne replied with characteristic enthusiam, grateful, as they put it, for the opportunity to not only tell their story, but to honor Jane and to tell everyone what working with her has meant to them. Their response is in the form of 2 videos created exclusively for this website. We hope that after viewing the video clips, that you will not just shake your head sadly at what you are about to hear but that you will be led to find a way to try to spread the mission of Childhelp.
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Sara O' Meara and Yvonne Fedderson on how Childhelp came to be.
Download videos to watch on your computer. Videos open in quicktime, VLC player or windows media
On the compassion of Jane Seymour and why she is so loved by this organization.
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Our thanks to Sara O' Meara and Yvonne Fedderson for this very special gift.
