"Everyone can be great...because anybody can serve." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Mountain Light "Journeys of Discovery" team invites your partnership in giving hope to young people in crisis through tangible expressions of care. Our way to accomplish this has been through the Mountain Light Backpack Project, a special endeavor that grew out of a project to provide student backpacks with relief supplies to all survivors of the 2004 Beslan School tragedy. Each backpack contains crucial supplies (warm clothing, food and medical and school supplies) that are delivered directly to children in need through experienced and trusted intermediaries. Depending on current global needs, areas of focus change and we are presently seeking support for pressing needs in North Ossetia. Please read below for additional information and check out the upper right hand corner of this page for information on how you can help. Sincere thanks for your partnership in this endeavor.

Dr. Richard D. Scheuerman,

Director, Mountain Light Institute "Journeys of Discovery"

---

In recent weeks, over 40,000 refugees fled fighting between Russia and Georgia in the Caucasus to seek safe havens in North Ossetia. An estimated 5,000 of this number are children who are being housed under difficult circumstances in schools, orphanages, and internats. Some are living with their parents but many are not. International organizations are shipping relief supplies to Georgia, but are restricted from sending assistance to Russian-controlled North Ossetia where needs are substantial.

Many of the refugees are residing in Beslan and surrounding areas, site of the terrorist murders at the Beslan School in 2004. Residents there who suffered so greatly and others in North Ossetia want to reach out to the thousands of homeless people, almost at their doorstep. They are doing all they can but need funds to buy food, clothing, and other supplies for the refugees, which will be given by aid workers with whom Journeys of Discovery/Mountain Light colleagues have worked since the Beslan tragedy when backpacks filled with relief supplies were delivered to several thousand children.

---

25 August 2008 (Reported by Pavel T.)

At least fifteen thousand refugees from the South Ossetia are now accommodated on the territory of North Ossetia. All of them are in dire need of food, clothing, and other essential items, because many of them left their homes having only their own clothes. Many came without any documents. A group of fifty people most of whom are women and children have been accommodated in the dormitory of the Vladikavkaz Professional School #5 which we visited this past week. We brought with us school backpacks filled with clothing and school supplies. The school's principal, K. G. Gagiev, met us very hospitably. After a short introduction he told us about refugees' living conditions: "We are trying to create all necessary living conditions for them and provide with all things. I would like to express heartfelt thanks to your institute for all your help."

Looking into the eyes of schoolchildren we met like Madina, Georgy, Soslan, Azamat, Atsamaz, and others who received much needed gifts, one would have a hard time imagining that just days ago they experienced such tragedy. We saw them running outside with their new bags on their shoulders as they wanted to show their parents. Later on, when we were distributing clothing to adults, we would see those backpacks flickering here and there. The kids even wore them inside the dorm where they stayed. "From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank you for your kindness, sensitivity, and tenderness. You are such kind-hearted people! We have been helped with all kind of ways: clothing and food, but most importantly, with moral support," said Oksana Gobayeva who is living in Tskhinvali. "We are grateful for all the attention and kindness," said Madina Doguzova. Both women are principals of the school where many of the children are living with their families.