Shattered Lives: Patrick Atkinson: Runaways, Prostitutes, Gangs and More

Patrick J. Atkinson, founder and President of ITEMP, is also the founder and international executive director of The GOD’S CHILD Project and several other associated charities in the United States, Central America and Africa. Mr. Atkinson holds an MNM from Regis University and is on the faculty of three American universities.

He has been named the Benefactor of the City of Antigua- an international recognition last awarded four hundred years ago; knighted by the Spanish Order of St. James; and recently received the Guatemalan National Congressional Medal of Honor in recognition of the risks he took, and the thousands of Mayan Indian lives he helped to save, during the bloodshed of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.

In 2000 and 2001, Mr. Atkinson was invited by the United Nations to develop child development and educational programs for street children left orphaned by the rampaging AIDS crisis in East and South Africa. In 2007, Atkinson was named “Goodwill Ambassador” for Peace by the Government of Guatemala.