Joe Maier

R., (born 31 October 1939) is an American Redemptorist priest who lives and works in the Khlong Toei slums of Bangkok, Thailand, where he co-founded the Human Development Foundation (HDF-Mercy Centre) with Sister Maria Chantavarodom in 1973.

[1] For over 45 years, he has administered to Bangkok's poorest, providing vulnerable children and families alternatives to and a haven away from drugs, violence, sexual abuse, and prostitution in the squatter slums.

He ministered in northern Isan and to the Hmong in Laos before settling permanently in Bangkok's "slaughterhouse" slums, next to the Chao Phraya River in the Khlong Toei District.

[2] Today, in addition to schools, HDF operates orphanages and homes for street kids, assists children and adults living with AIDS, provides emergency assistance and home repair to slum families affected by crippling floods and fires, acts in cooperation with community members to mediate activities involving welfare organizations, housing authorities, governmental agencies, and the Port Authority of Thailand.

[4] The Mercy Centre extended its humanitarian efforts to southern Thailand following the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, sending down relief teams to directly aid remote villages, from Satun to Ranong, hit hard by the disaster.

[19] In 2009, The Nautilus Book Awards honored The Gospel of Father Joe with a silver medal in the category of Conscious Media-Journalism-Investigative Reporting.