More News

As a child growing up in Jordan, Norma Nashed survived her battle with poverty and got an education. Her Burtonsville-based nonprofit, Reaching Hearts for Kids, aims to help children around the world do the same.

Now, much of Nashed's fight is concentrated on her body but the focus remains on helping children. As she endures heart problems and painful arthritis that has bent her fingertips, she sits on a couch at her Beltsville apartment and points out some notable items in various Reaching Hearts for Kids newsletters. The nonprofit celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

In Arusha, Tanzania, the organization is working with Global Vessels to build a model village for orphans. In Caro, Congo, a $41,000 donation from Dr. William Davis of Washington, D.C., to the organization resulted in the construction of a well that now provides 1,200 gallons of drinking water.

"When I think of the people [helped], I am healed," said Nashed, founder of Reaching Hearts for Kids and a member of Reaching Hearts Ministries in Spencerville.

Much of those plans came from the makeshift office Nashed set up in her apartment along Cherry Hill Road. In December 2007, it became engulfed in flames while she helped build an orphanage in Ambo, Ethiopia, The Gazette reported in January 2008. But in the ashes of the fire came a restored sense of confidence in her organization, which she launched after being diagnosed with skin cancer.

"I used to cry and I was alone," said Nashed, who runs the Reaching Hearts for Kids with the help of volunteers. "I have something to live for, and that's great."

Nashed's involvement in global relief efforts began on a trip back to her old Christian school in Jordan, where she picked up trash at the school to pay tuition. She saw that two children were going to be expelled because they couldn't pay tuition. Nashed stepped in and paid for the children to remain there.

Michael Oxentenko, president and senior pastor of Reaching Hearts International, called Nashed "a great lady."

"[Reaching Hearts for Kids] is really driven to an extent for her selfless passion to save children's lives – and I mean save children's lives," Oxentenko said.

From its roots as a local charitable organization helping area children, Reaching Hearts for Kids now offers relief efforts, which include orphanages in Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. While there is still a need to help area children, Nashed said the need is greater overseas. To answer that need she expanded the scope of the organization.

Nashed said she learned about giving back from her mother. Growing up in Jordan, Nashed lived with nine people in one room and slept on a cement floor. Despite their poverty, Nashed said her mother would sew for others who needed it.

Later in her childhood, Nashed was adopted by an American missionary and went to high school and college in Lebanon. She moved to the United States more than 20 years ago and worked for a Jordanian airline company and in several administrative positions. Now, she speaks four languages. But she remembers where it all started.

"I wanted to be like my mother," Nashed said. "It's important to help others and serve others."

Nashed, who has three grown children and two grandchildren, said Reaching Hearts for Kids will be her legacy to the family.

"This is my legacy to them, to know that caring counts," Nashed said.

In reflecting on Reaching Hearts for Kids' mission, Nashed recited a quote that has stuck with her: "Success is what you do for yourself, significance is what you do for others."