Our Programs: Health Care | Opportunities | Personal Relationships | Education

By staying in touch with the Jericho College Scholarship recipients,lasting friendships have been formed. This kind of support is one of the most valuable components of the Jericho mission.

Personal Relationships At The Orphanage In Zenica

Jericho Volunteers have made periodic visits to the orphanage in Zenica since 2005. On the most recent visit, a team of eight volunteers traveled from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Zenica to engage young people in activities and communicate friendship and support.

One volunteer described the visit to the orphanage as "a way to let them know that somebody cares about them and they matter."

The group brought eight 50-pound suitcases stuffed with school supplies and toiletries for the orphans. Care bags of candy and supplies were also delivered, having been created by Portage teacher Darcee Thomas' fifth-grade class at Moorsbridge Elementary School. 50 soccer balls donated by Kalamazoo's TKO Premiere Soccer Club, and Lee's Sports provided sleeping bags for families of prosthetic clinic patients in Mostar.

"The community support has been incredible," Jericho founder Joanna Shields told the Kalamazoo Gazette in a June, 2008 Interview. She said the Jericho Foundation hopes to send a group to Bosnia every other year and to host Bosnian children in Kalamazoo during the summers in between. "Every person can be a part of the puzzle that completes the picture for these kids," Shields said. "I really think that we can help this country rebuild itself one child at a time."