Anne Cundari
by Katie Cundari

The crash of a bomb over a hill, or the cry for water that comes from nearby.  The need for food or some kind of shelter, and the relief that comes when it is received.  I have never experienced any of these things, but everyday I am reminded of them.

My mom works as a writer, but she writes for a very special purpose.  Her company is an engineering company that designs for social development.  They build schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, and irrigation systems in places like Afghanistan, Liberia, Ethiopia, and many other third world countries.  My mom’s goal with her writing is to make proposals that tell the government what needs to be done and what her company can do to help.  The writing she does every day saves people from many tragedies that can be prevented.

The company for which my mom works puts a big emphasis on capacity building or, in common language, teaching instead of doing.  Just like the famous saying that if you give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.  This helps with social justice because my mom and the company she works with provide and teach how to create the basic rights like life, water, food, and shelter.

I would like to light a candle to my mom because of how much she really cares about the people we don’t necessarily think about every day.  Even though she is not an engineer herself, my mom makes a difference in the lives of many others every day using her gift of writing.  The best thing my mom does is make every part of her work as personal as it should be.  People in need have to have other people care about them to make real change happen, and even though my mom can’t be in the countries herself to see the change that occurs, she still finds a way to make good in other peoples’ lives.  As Martin Luther King Jr. has said, my mom believes that “their destiny is tied up with their destiny.  We cannot walk alone.”