By Matt Russell

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

A Catholic social worker in Colombia who was nominated by members of the Rochester-based Sisters of Saint Francis has received $100,000 in recognition of her work with children with disabilities.

Sister Valeriana Garcia-Martin received the money as a finalist for the $1 million Opus Prize, a faith-based humanitarian award given annually by the Opus Prize Foundation. The $1 million prize was given to Aicha Ech Channa of Morocco on Wednesday at a ceremony at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

Garcia-Martin was nominated by Sister Tierney Trueman and Sister Val Usher of the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester. They became familiar with Garcia-Martin's work while doing ministry work in Colombia.

"In the south of the city she has this incredible orphanage for very seriously -- we use the word developmentally challenged -- but these children are physically, emotionally and mentally seriously handicapped, and they're abandoned," Trueman said.

Garcia-Martin, a native of Spain, was working as a Sister of Filipense at the National Institute for Blind Children in Bogota in 1991 when she opened a home for four abandoned handicapped infants.

She later established Hogares Luz y Vida, or Homes of Light and Life, which has expanded to eight locations in the Bogota area, including an elementary school and day care centers that integrate high-functioning and handicapped children.

P-B reporter Matt Russell on Twitter: twitter.com/PBmattrussell

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