The organization is named in honor of my Grandmother and my Mother--both named Joan Marie Crawford.  They overcame overwhelming challenges in their lives, yet they always rose to the occasion.  My Mother raise four children on her own, and was a remarkable woman in everyway.  She influenced thousands of students over her 30+years of teaching, and overcame the prejudice of being a divorcee when it was socially unacceptable.  She taught all that just being born had a huge impact on the world.  Mom also taught us that we are always responsible for out actions and decisions.  Both my Grandmother and Mother were extraordinary givers, and they taught us to give back to the world whatever we had to offer.                                                                          

Working as a licensed psychotherapist in Southern California, I took a trip to Honduras and realized it would be possible to make the world a much better place for battered and abused women in that extremely poor country.  That has now become my life's work!

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