WASHINGTON– The GOD’S CHILD Project, a North Dakota-based nonprofit organization, is celebrating 20 years of domestic and international service with praise from the White House. President Barack Obama sent a letter congratulating the Project and its founder Patrick Atkinson for improving the lives of thousands of impoverished children and mothers in the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, India, and Malawi, Africa.

“On this occasion, we are reminded of the abiding truth that each of us has the power to create a better world for ourselves and our children when we do God’s work here on earth,” President Obama wrote in the letter.

Atkinson, who grew up in North Dakota, founded The GOD’S CHILD Project in 1991 to educate and care for orphaned, abandoned, and impoverished children in Antigua, Guatemala. His original vision has since grown into 13 distinct programs dedicated to creating sustainable and permanent change in the lives of the world’s poorest people.

“When I started GOD’S CHILD, I never could have imagined the international social movement that the Project would become,” Atkinson said.

More than 5,000 children and nearly 8,700 mothers and their dependents receive services from The GOD’S CHILD Project. The organization’s holistic approach to breaking the generational poverty cycle includes free education, health and dental care, psychological care, legal representation, food and clothing donations, and housing. GOD’S CHILD also combats human trafficking, childhood malnutrition, gang violence, and homelessness in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

“It is an honor to receive praise from the White House for the work The GOD’S CHILD Project has quietly been doing for two decades,” Atkinson said. “While it is humbling to know that the President is familiar with our work, that is not why we serve the poor. We work hard every day simply because every person on earth deserves the same basic human rights: education, food, shelter, and dignity.”