Our Mission

The Mia Sutphin Foundation is dedicated to supporting programs which benefit children in need, through focusing on direct healthcare and health outreach

The Mia Sutphin Foundation

The Mia Sutphin Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2002 in memory of Mia Helene Sutphin. Mia was an ordinary person who lived in an extraordinary way, using her passion for nursing and compassion for all to dedicate her life to caring for children in need across USA, India and Kenya. Today, Mia’s spirit and good work continues through The Mia Sutphin Foundation. The foundation supports programs which benefit children in need of direct healthcare, health outreach and housing. Since we started in 2002, The Mia Sutphin Foundation has made more than 88 grants to organizations worldwide.

About Mia

On May 19, 2002, 27-year old Mia died of a reaction to medication she was taking to combat malaria. At the time, she was a volunteer at an orphanage for HIV-infected children in Kenya. We created a foundation in her name to help her family and friends remember Mia and how she touched so many lives.

As a teenager in Baltimore, Mia volunteered as a candy striper and at a homeless shelter, which shaped her future interests. She pursued a degree in nursing at University of Delaware and accepted her first job as a school nurse in Colorado.

She loved working with the children and also volunteered her time teaching health and sex ed to young single mothers, but a desire to volunteer abroad was growing inside her. Mia saved her money to allow her to volunteer overseas on two separate occasions-at a hospital in Bihar, India and an orphanage for HIV-infected children in Nairobi, Kenya. Mia left for Kenya in March 2002 and after only 10 weeks at the orphanage, she had learned the names of all 80 children. She would make the rounds to all six cottages to say goodnight to her charges and took extra care with two boys who were too sick to join the others. Mia created a mural on a wall in the boys room with figures representing all of the children and named it , “Our Children of Nyumbani”. The mural still remains.

The Foundation is a governed board of directors comprised of Mia’s six siblings along with five members outside of the family. There are Four board sub-committees that operate to handle foundations distributions, fundraising, communications and finance.

Board of Directors