Foreign Service Youth Foundation

Allie Frerichs, 1st Place

Allie’s family has been stationed in Panama during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through her association with the Embassy, she learned that the nation’s police force was suffering high infection rates while enforcing the quarantine laws, and then quarantined in poor conditions away from their families.

Allie held a fundraiser with the Embassy and raised $3,000 to buy urgently needed supplies for the quarantined officers. She then coordinated with embassy employees to buy the supplies and deliver it to the barracks, spending 7-12 hours per week on the project over 3 months.

Cesar Lionel Miranda, 2nd Place

Cesar is stationed with his family in Ciudad, Juarez. He became aware of a local shelter called Casa Uedes, where 44 young girls were living. Most of them had been victims of the rampant violence and trafficking around the Juarez border.

Cesar felt compelled to help. He formed an NGO called Youth4Youth International and set up a blog (www.youth4youthinternational.org) to garner support for his cause.

He visited the shelter personally to learn what the girls there needed most in their day-to-day lives, especially during the pandemic. He decided to help raise money with the help of another NGO, The Social Good Fund. He then purchased and delivered the materials himself, so the shelter could focus on the welfare of the girls during the Covid-19 crisis.

Ann Carew, 3rd Place Tie

Caption: Ann Carew was tied for 3rd place winner for 2021.

Alt text: Ann Carew sitting at a table.

Ann’s family is stationed in Ecuador, where she learned of areas and neighborhoods that lacked access to much-needed health information, medicine and supplies for dealing with the pandemic.

She proactively secured funds from the J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust and began assembling “gift bags” with medical supplies and information about the virus to give to community members.

She has worked tirelessly over the past 4 months to distribute over 500 of them and plans to give out even more.

Micah Dieterle, 3rd Place Tie

Micah lives in Beijing, China. He learned about the Yingkang Elderly Apartment in his area from a friend and reached out to an administrator at the retirement home to ask how he could be of service to them in these trying times.

He was told that the residents had no outdoor shade, and that they would also appreciate a place to grow vegetables.

Micah generously organized and led the building of a large arboretum for the retirement home. He engaged in fundraising for the project, and even used his own savings to help pay for the construction materials.