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DID JAMES TWYMAN SPONSOR, ESTABLISH, AND FUND A BELOVED
COMMUNITY CHILDREN'S HOME IN IRAQ?
(Note: All bolds, underlines, and italics are Lorie's. This page went
live on or about 2/1/04. Watch for updates. The following sections were heavily revised in
July and August 2004 to reflect my current understanding of the situation. Further revisions were
made for clarity in subsequent months.)
[I have supporting evidence for all statements of fact presented on
this web page.]
I certainly appreciate the humanitarian work that Donna Mulhearn
and
her team have accomplished in Iraq, and The Beloved Community's (TBC) efforts
to raise donations to help children in Iraq. At the same time, I believe that donations
should be treated with due diligence, respect, honesty, accountability, and
transparency.
On May 3, 2004, I informed TBC that I would seriously revamp or even remove this web page
if they would demonstrate accountability and transparency about their
organization, and about the shelter project in particular.
I have not seen this nor received
a reply to this offer, to date.
I urge The Beloved Community to
answer the easy questions outlined below.
And, I invite anyone in the know to provide me with
information to illuminate and clarify the situation and/or correct
any misinterpretations on my part.
Why I created this page
Skeptical and troubled by several of James Twyman’s claims and activities around the theme
of “psychic children,” among other concerns, I began to scrutinize some of those claims and
wrote
a strong commentary.
Afterward, I felt heartened to read on The Beloved Community's website and in their
messages
that TBC would be
establishing and funding and sponsoring and building a children's shelter in Iraq, to be set up
by Donna Mulhearn and her team of former “Human Shields” (peace activists) in Iraq: "The Beloved
Community Children's Center" --
a truly noble cause in my opinion. However a deeper look left me feeling troubled, once
again.
"The children's home that we are helping to sponsor" --
TBC's website
IN SUM: After reading various releases and other information, excerpts chronologized
below, I realized there is no "Beloved Community Children's
Center" in Iraq, contrary to James Twyman's many fund-raising announcements. Yet James Twyman has not
retracted this assertion.
Is TBC funding or helping to fund any shelter "home" in Iraq? James Twyman's 3/13/04
angry message on this web page's board insists that Donna Mulhearn "runs
the center in Baghdad," and that "the center is
doing extremely well." TBC continues to raise
donations for a "home" in Iraq,
and purportedly visited this home
in March 2004. TBC showed a photo
at their "Emissary of Light"
website of this visit entitled: "THE CHILDREN'S
HOME THAT WE ARE HELPING TO SPONSOR." [3/5/06 Note: Even to this day,
the Emissary of Light donation request page says: "...if you would like to donate to a
specific project (for example, the children's home in Iraq), please indicate this in the box provided."]
TBC's contribution may well have gone toward funding for
an after-school play center in Iraq that their friend Donna Mulhearn apparently helped establish (she reportedly needed $75,000, and
TBC told me they sent Donna $10,000), but the evidence I have seen does not support TBC's claim that they established,
or even helped to sponsor, a children's home in Iraq.[summary augmented 3/6/06]
By process of elimination
"Our Home-Iraq's" emergency shelter:
In spite of TBC's apparent attempt to wire $5000 in November 2003, and apparent
success in wiring
$10,000 in February 2004 to Donna Mulhearn, their "Project Coordinator" in Iraq,
TBC's funds did not
arrive in
time to help sponsor the temporary emergency shelter that Donna Mulhearn's organization,
"Our Home-Iraq," set up in November 2003. (The Our Home-Iraq team
had raised about (AUD) $50,000 before they arrived in Iraq.) By Donna's
own reports, here and here,
we learn that this shelter all but
closed in January 2004 as the twenty boys were relocated to a new orphanage
established by Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC).
So, this cannot be the home that James Twyman referred to as the home that Donna runs that
TBC is helping to sponsor.
Youth Aid Iraq: Helen Williams, a humanitarian aid
worker in Iraq who worked
with the "Our Home-Iraq" group, reported online that she helped establish the temporary shelter. After most of the children were
relocated, Helen returned to Iraq, in February 2004, to
keep the shelter available to a few older youth/young men who didn't qualify
for the orphanage, and to try to redirect
younger boys on the street to the new KSC orphanage.
She established "Youth Aid Iraq" for this and similar purposes,
which is not supported by Donna Mulhearn, or TBC.
This program serves children of any economic bracket in a poor neighborhood --
an important service, but this is not a homeless shelter for destitute street children and
so this cannot be the "home" that Donna runs that TBC claims they
are helping to sponsor.
It appears that TBC attempted to but did not succeed in
contributing any funds to Our Home/House Iraq's two-month
emergency shelter. It appears that Our Home Iraq (and therefore TBC) did not help fund the new
orphanage where the boys were moved. It appears that Donna Mulhearn, and therefore TBC, did not establish,
fund, or manage any
long-term shelter home in Iraq, let alone one on behalf of TBC. Donna Mulhearn reported
establishing, with the help of TBC funds, a play/art center in Iraq.
This is not a children's homeless shelter.
Nevertheless, TBC has solicited and continues to solicit
donations for a home, a service for the most desperate and needy children in Baghdad.
December 14, 2003. "Sunday Nights With John Cleary --
Postcard from Baghdad: Donna Mulhearn" (see link below): “Our Home” has established an
emergency shelter for 20 street boys who were living in a burnt-out building in central
Baghdad." "The project team is made up of
international volunteers, Iraqi staff and members of the Iraqi community working in partnership." "Our
Home has been assisted in its fund-raising efforts by "Muslim Aid Australia."
December 25,
2003. Moonbright wrote this to Donna Mulhearn:
Hello Donna,
I certainly appreciate what you're doing for the children of Iraq. You are
a brave soul with a huge heart.
I read that this shelter was being set up by The Beloved Community, James
Twyman's organization, and their website has a place to donate money, but I
don't see them getting any credit for setting up the shelter or for donating a
large sum of money for making it possible in the news articles that I read on
the Internet. Just wondering why not.
Thanks.
Moon Bright
December 27, 2003. Donna Mulhearn's reply:
Hello Moonbright,
The reason is because none of the money raised by the Beloved Community has
been used to set up the project.
The shelter has not been 'set up' by the Beloved Community, but by a group
of individuals who were in Iraq during the war who have worked hard in their
home countries to fundraise for the project.
To this point I have not received any money from the Beloved Community.
Not one cent.
We have set up and currently run the project from the money
raised through countless dinners and fundraisers and donations of hunmdreds of
people across Australia, and the UK. I spent about 3 months doing this work
full-time as a volunteer before I came. An international N.G.O, Muslim Aid
Australia, is also a significant contributer to the project.
I expect that the funds raised by the Beloved Community will be used when
we are ready to run the project according to the Beloved Community's
philosophy.
That cannot happen until some volunteers from the Beloved Community come to
Baghdad to join me, because I cannot do it alone.
Perhaps you could come to Baghdad to help??? (Cut two paragraphs of personal
expression.)
I'm not sure what articles you've read on the internet (perhaps you can tell me?),
but you might not be aware of how
the media work?? We can not dictate to a journalist what they put in a story.
I often mention to
journalists that the project will continue in the long-term as a result of
funding from the Beloved Community, but those kinds of details rarley make it
into stories.
Perhaps you can do something about it by writing your own story and
submitting it to the media?
I find that taking action on an issue rather than complaining about it and
making accusations is far more helpful for everyone involved.
Credit will go where it is due. When the Beloved COmmunity begin working in
Iraq I guess the credit will come naturally as a result of that. I am eager
for this to happen as soon as possible.
(cut question about her email address -- non relevant)
As for me, I prefer not to receive credit from the media, from websites or from anyone ...
God sees what we do in secret and blesses us accordingly. The joy is in giving, not receiving
credit.
blessings to you
Donna
This message from Donna followed immediately:
hello again moonbright,
(cut irrelevant introductory statements)
In a nutshell: I don't feel that the "Beloved Community" work in Baghdad has officially
started yet because I need
to have a team of like-minded spiritual people here and I need the work to be in accordance
with what it was raised for.
At the moment a shelter is being run for the boys - but I am keen for it it be improved and
run with the philosophy of the
Beloved Community.
At the moment I could not say it is ready yet for me to introduce that philsophy. So I'm
aware that
I should not receive B.C funds until I am confident it is ready.
I hope that will be VERY soon. Inshallah (God Willing!)
I am expectant that the Beloved Community (both in person and in spirit) will have a very
powerful effect in Baghdad - I'm
very excited about it and about reporting back to encourage all those who donated...
blessings from Baghdad
DOnna
Lorie's note: I am not including the subsequent
correspondence here, but for the record, Moonbright then clarified to Donna Mulhearn that she
was not part of The Beloved Community, as it sounded like Donna may have thought this.
Moonbright also sent Donna some statements written by James Twyman/The
Beloved Community that refer to their establishing the shelter. No further response from Donna.
Here is what James Twyman announced next: