Mother’s Mission Statement

Support group for military families announced
BY PETE DAVIS
The support group for military families founded by three mothers from Corona is taking its requests for additional resources for veterans and their families directly to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Maria del Rosario Duran, who is the President of the newly formed Council of Families and Friends of Active, Deceased and Missing Soldiers of American Wars, plans deliver the group’s proposals personally to Bloomberg on Wednesday, August 8 at a Dominican community event at Gracie Mansion.
The newly formed organization, whose story was reported exclusively last week in The Courier Sun, made the official announcement on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, August 7 with City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, who will serve on the group’s Board of Directors and was instrumental in starting the organization.
Duran has been praying with family and friends for her son, Specialist Alex Jimenez, missing in Iraq since May 12, but she is not the only mother of a service member in her community experiencing difficult time. Blocks from Duran’s Corona home, two other Hispanic mothers, Gladys Ciro, whose son Marlon Bustamante, 25, died while serving in Iraq on February 1, 2006, and Maria Gomez, whose son Jose Gomez, 23, died on April 28, 2006, are going through similar situations.
“We are going through difficult times, having our beloved sons, husbands, daughters in Iraq, so we decided to form this support group with the families and friends,” Duran recently told The Courier Sun. “I had many mothers coming to me, desperate to find a helping hand to listen to them. Often, what people need is to be heard, to find some solace/comfort in these hard times.”
One of the main initiatives that the Council of Families and Friends of Active, Deceased and Missing Soldiers of American Wars will present to Bloomberg involves asking him to create a housing program within the New York City Housing Authority for veterans, specifically targeting low-income soldiers and neighborhoods. Monserrate said he would introduce a bill to address this issue soon.
In addition, the advocacy group hopes that if a soldier is killed or goes missing in war, the benefits would be transferred to the soldier’s family as well as having all city buildings that currently display the American flag also put up the MIA (Missing in Action) flag in support of the soldiers.
Duran, who told reporters at the press conference that her days have been filled with agony and hardships since her son’s disappearance, also said that the newly formed group and speaking with other mothers going through similar situations has given her strength to continue.