Who We Are
We are a Catholic and ecumenical 501(c)(3) foundation dedicated to serving our brothers and sisters around the globe by sharing our blessings and empowering them through education and self-employment. We serve one community, one family, and one child at a time, contributing to projects in microeconomics, education, and health. We are building up the lives of children waiting everywhere.
Why We Are 100% Volunteer
Naomi Corera, CWE Founder and Spearhead: When my lawyer sent me his bills for working on making us a 501(c)(3) foundation, I noticed he had N/C after each statement. When I questioned him why he was putting my initials at the end of each bill – he laughed and said, “Naomi, it is not your initial, it means No Charge! So let’s keep it that way.”
So it remains: no charge for everything and for everyone who works for this foundation. By the grace of God it has been that way since we began in 2000! No salaries, no rent, no travel expenses – all the work being done by generous donors who give of their time and talent.
How We Got Started
by Naomi Corera, 26 August 2014
While I was the principal of Spiritus Sanctus, a Catholic school in Ann Arbor, and working with priests from Uganda, they challenged me to visit Uganda and consider sponsoring a sister school in Uganda. They told me stories of the students who were desperate for water and education.
So to celebrate my 50th birthday I decided to go to Uganda to meet the children. First, I invited my many friends to come to my birthday party and bring me a check for the children and their needs. I collected $5,000. So with that I embarked on my first trip to Uganda, little knowing that it would be the first of many trips, in fact becoming a life-long journey to provide and visit my children.
For my first night in Uganda with the sisters in a building with no roof and no lights, I was given a small cup of water to wash myself – outside this half-finished building that the sisters called the convent. So standing in the dark behind a small bush for privacy, I washed myself while dipping my fingers into the small bowl of water. Feeling half clean after the long trip from Detroit to Kampala, I got ready for the night. I was given a small tin-can to relieve myself during the night. Now I know what it means to “kick the bucket” – that is just what I did, which created more problems. During the otherwise quiet night, except for the noisy chirping of the bright green, large grasshoppers swooping around me, I was snuggled under my covers. But daring to peek out, I was bitten by one of those nasty grasshoppers. My scream broke the silence which brought all the sisters scampering fast to see what brought out that loud scream. With no sympathy for me they burst into laughter. “Scared of grasshoppers? We eat them!”
The next morning, sister took me out to a hole in the ground in a stone structure to once again relieve myself. Thank God I knew how to squat from my days in Sri Lanka – the land of my birth. I was introduced to the beautiful children and with their happy smiles they greeted me with song and dance. Pretty soon the whole village was all around me. What did I see? Children, children, children – all looking at me with pleading eyes. The children were playing football with a ball wrapped in banana fiber – it would last just for one game. They were all sweaty and thirsty, that is when I noticed there was no water to drink.
Now it was lunch time and there was no food – except to chase and collect the grasshoppers by shaking the bushes. That was the divine moment. It dawned on me – my mission was just emerging. Once again it was children, children all around me. Children Waiting Everywhere was born in my thoughts.
Returning home I was a changed woman – a woman with a mission, a woman with a strong passion. A water tank, bathrooms for the sisters, bedrooms, a roof for the building, a chapel to pray, a mid-day meal for the children – all this was budgeted for $10,000. Yes – I had work to do it and do it fast. I figured 100 friends each giving me $100, 100 x 100 = $10,000. That would be easy as the Lord had blessed me with so many generous friends. So in less than 3 months I had collected the $10,000! I immediately sent it to the sisters and then in April during my Easter holidays embarked on my trip once again to Uganda to see the fruits of my friend’s generosity. Wow! Bathrooms! Bedrooms! Chapel! And most of all: “Life Giving Water!” Other schools and churches were contacting me for help with their schools, too. Thus “Children Waiting Everywhere” was born.