News and Events
Text by John Hood / Pics courtesy of GFF
Philanthropist, writer and documentary-filmmaker, Kimberly Green, has headed the Green Family Foundation since 1997, and her good works stretch from the local Miami community to clear across
the world.
Personally, Kimberly oversees GFF’s partnership with the University of Miami through the Green Family Health Initiative (GFHI), which helps drive the University of Miami Medical School's groundbreaking work with pediatric infectious diseases and funds Project Medishare, an adjunct program designed to help rebuild the health care delivery system in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
Kimberly wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Once There Was a Country: Revisiting Haiti; served as a special events director for the United Way; a counselor in the Head Start Program on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; a teacher of religious studies at a juvenile correctional facility; and an event coordinator for the Children’s Health Fund. She is also a board member at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.
What does the Green Family Foundation do?
We provide seed grants to support holistic programs that empower entire communities. Our end goal is to enable underserved communities to achieve sustainability and self-reliance by alleviating the cycle of poverty and disease.
How long has the Foundation been doing it?
The Foundation was established in 1991 by my father, Ambassador Steven Green, but did not get into full swing until 1996, when I decided to take an active role in designating our philanthropic dollars towards programs that address social justice and community empowerment. Kevin Coster, the VP of the Foundation, and I, both take an active participatory role in hands on involvement in almost all of the organizations we fund.
How does one get involved?
The best way to show your support is to get involved with the organizations and projects we help fund. Volunteering a few hours of your time or donating supplies or services to any organizations will help make a difference in the lives of our neighbors, no matter where they may live. It is important to recognize that all forms of involvement are valid and should be celebrated, from attending an event that will raise awareness, to talking to friends about an article you read, volunteering your time, or donating money. Any activity that helps us connect to each other in a concerned and involved manner will help to change the world, one small action at a time.
Your plans for the future?
The foundation is currently in the process of helping to establish a new, integrated community development project in Haiti, in collaboration with the University of Miami and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. We are utilizing our documentary film to educate and involve communities around the globe to the issues around extreme poverty, and to promote our efforts in Haiti. In 2008, GFF will partner with Columbia University's ICAP program to further support mother-to-child transmission programs and community health educators in Mozambique.
In your opinion, what is the worlds most dire threat
and why?
More than one billion people, roughly one-sixth of the world's population, live in extreme poverty, lacking the safe water, proper nutrition, basic health care and social services needed to survive. The consequences of this reach far beyond those immediately afflicted. Poverty and inequality breed civil war, violent conflict, and the break down of civil society. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University, states that a world with extreme poverty is a world of insecurity. Without education, active involvement, compassion for the suffering, political will and the basic concern for our neighbors, we face an alienation from the human spirit. It is imperative that we take action now in being the generation that eliminates extreme poverty, and places human rights and social justice before economic greed and exploitation. Let that be this generation's legacy.