Philantropy

Founded in 1992, the Special Olympics in Croatia has forty affiliated chapters all over the country, and brings sixteen official sports to over 1,300 Croatians. The organization’s mission is to provide year–round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic–type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills, and friendship. Competing in international events, Special Olympic athletes from Croatia have travelled all over the world—to countries such as China, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Austria, and the U.S. in 2015 for the Summer World Games. The NFCACF is proud to have raised close to $25,000 alone in 2015 to help defray much of the costs of the thirty person Croatian Delegation that came to the USA! Most recently, the Croatian team competed in Abu Dhabi for the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games where they proudly took home three gold and seven silver medals.

For a bit of history about the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, daughter of the Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, founded the Special Olympics in 1968. As a child, Eunice witnessed her sister, Rosemary, grow up with an intellectual disability. This experience spurred her life-long passion to fight against the marginalization of individuals similar to her sister’s. Thus, her idea for the Special Olympics came from her deep love for helping people with disabilities achieve the justice, rights, and the recognition they deserve. Today, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s passion lives on, as the Special Olympics has grown into a successful worldwide organization with over 150 countries participating, including Croatia.

With help from quarterly newsletters to all our members, 300 personal emails and Facebook outreach, NFCACF- MUO Relief Fund raised $21,000 US dollars and $23,000 for the repairs in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.

The December 28th Earthquake took place around the town of Petrinja, 28 miles southeast from Zagreb with a magnitude 6.2 which caused serval injuries, damaged buildings and 7 deaths. The Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU) with help from NFCFCF held a humanitarian drive of $5,000 and $200 from the executive offices with funds forwarded to the Croatian Red Cross to distribute contributions to the most devastated areas. The Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP) established within their foundation giving policy to include direct purchases of medical devices and similar items identified as the greatest need. ACAP also provided the Clinical Medical Center Rijeka, NICU in Zagreb with an incubator, reanimation table, and a resuscitation system (following the March earthquake) with great help from their Stewardship committee in Croatia.

Several NFCACF Board Members have visited Bishop Franjo Komarica in Banja Luka including President Steve Rukavina and Biljana Lovrinovic, to discuss partnering with his Catholic Diocese regarding human rights issues or business-related projects.

NFCACF even sponsored research in the Banja Luka  area to examine possible collaborative business initiatives with Croatian American businessmen and the Banja Luka Diocese Catholic Church community including U.S AID funded agricultural projects to benefit the Croat community.