We are pleased to announce that our foundation's co-founder, Fr. Joe Maier, was named one of three finalists for the annual Opus Prize, a prestigious annual award that “recognizes unsung heroes who, guided by faith and an entrepreneurial spirit, are conquering the world’s most persistent social problems.” (Please see details at www.opusprize.org.)

This year’s prize winner, announced last week at the ceremony in Spokane, Washington, was Sister Tesa Fitzgerald, a Catholic nun based in Queens, New York, who runs a foundation for incarcerated women and their children.

The Opus Prize is presented annually to faith-based humanitarians around the world. Each prize is awarded with the assistance of a Catholic university whose faculty and students are involved in the selection process.

There were 26 candidates for this year’s prize. Each organization considered must be entrepreneurial, sustainable and faith-based.

Fr. Joe’s award as a finalist brings honor to our foundation as it recognizes his four decades of work in our beloved Klong Toey slums and all his efforts in educating and protecting the very poorest children.

Photos below: Fr. Joe in early 1980s beside his shack in the slaughter house neighborhood and Fr. Joe this year presenting diplomas on Mercy Kindergarten Graduation Day. In the past 40 years, over 40,000 poor children have learned to read and write in our Mercy preschools. (B&W photos by Yoonki Kim; Slaughterhouse photo by James Coyne.)