Dear Friends,

Welcome to The Noel Foundation! The opportunity to open doors into the world where dreams can be realized for the disadvantaged fills my heart with excitement and joy. It is my privilege to help women and girls in need worldwide, to contribute to preventing global conflicts, and to support those working tirelessly to alleviate the plight of the most disadvantaged.

My Faith, my family, and work have always been and will remain the bedrock of my life. The Noel Foundation was conceived to be a part of my commitment of giving back - to the community which cradled me, to the faith that sustains me, to women and girls who need an opportunity and a helping hand, to the most vulnerable and stigmatized - the mentally ill, and to the most neglected - the lonely elderly. The Noel Foundation is my commitment of giving back to my beloved America, which must remain a beacon of hope and peace.

I was raised in a working community in South Los Angeles - hence The Noel Foundation's sponsorship of inner city projects. I was the firstborn of ten siblings, and the oldest of eight sisters. I know from my own experience what it means to be responsible for younger children, and the difference education can make for young girls. My husband and I have raised seven children, and we appreciate what it means to feel responsible every minute and every day for seven young lives. Now that our children have found their lives' paths, I want to give a helping hand to those young mothers, who struggle every day to take care of their children. My mother's unwavering love and encouragement, despite her grave health challenges, inspire me to support programs for women with children in need worldwide.

I have been fascinated by worlds beyond my community and my country since an early age. I was captivated by stories told by missionaries visiting my school of their experiences in far away lands, and knew that I wanted to travel and learn about different cultures and faiths. As a teenager I traveled across Europe, and worked in a travel agency in Israel. I took classes on Orthodox Judaism in Yeshiva University in an attempt to understand a religion other than mine. These experiences convinced me that my professional destiny was to connect people across oceans, cultures and religions by organizing a tour company. And much later, after my business became a success, I realized my dream of building bridges by directing The Noel Foundation's assistance programs to our global community - women and girls in Jordan, China, Armenia, India, the Philippines and wherever our helping hands were needed.

My first encounter with the threat of global annihilation took place during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. School nuns told us to spend days on our knees praying for the peaceful resolution of the crisis. It is those prayers that echo in my heart now, when the threat of nuclear violence is still present. Preventing global conflict through dialogue and diplomacy is what every woman on Earth wants, and what The Noel Foundation seeks to promote.

I consider myself to be blessed by having two mothers. The gift of my first mother is my life and my values. The gift of my second mother - Mother Teresa - is an inspiration to follow the great humanitarian tradition to serve the underprivileged. It has been almost twenty years since the moment I met Mother Teresa in India. Not a day has passed when I do not recall, how she embraced me and bestowed her testament: "Noel, what I can do, you can not do. What you can do, I can not do. But together, we can do great things."

"Noel" means "Birth", the beginning of new life. Welcome to The Noel Foundation's mission of giving life to dreams; let us provide new beginnings for a better global future.

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