Orphans International History

Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Summit & OI Board Expansion

2008-09-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

Over 500 non-for-profit leaders converged at the Harvard Club in New York on Sept. 23 for the Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Summit. The focus was on “New Directions in Non-Profit Leadership.” I followed the ‘board development track’ as I am actively involved with strengthening the boards of the organization I founded in 1999, Orphans International America.

Over four long sessions I met with and listened to executives from AmeriCares, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, Fountain House, the Hauser Foundation, Helen Keller International, Outward Bound, and the U.J.A. Federation.

I heard what I have already learned through experience: that one-third to one-half of an NGO’s income should come from its board. As founder, my mission is to increase the commitment of OI America’s Board of Directors and Advisory Board – their “stretch commitments” – as far as I can.

My ideas for 2009 are as follows:

.....24 board members -
.....$6,000 each = $144,000 [$5,000 each is another option]

.....24 advisory members -
.....$1,200 each = $28,800

.....Total = $172,800

OI America’s 2009 budget – just under $500,000 – is approximately three times the stretch commitment of OI America’s proposed boards. I realize that 24 board members are ‘a lot of people’ for 2009 – twice as many as we have in 2008. However, as a point of reference, the United Jewish Appeal Federation (U.J.A.) has 150 board members and the Brooklyn Academy of Music 52.

I advocate this significant expansion of our Boards in 2009 because we need all the help we can get in achieving our mission. I am further suggesting the creation of an Emeritus Board in 2009 with the same “stretch commitment’ as the Advisory Board. I have already put forth suggestions for several 2009 candidates to the Nominating Committee.*

The Nominating Committee for 2009 is comprised of OI America’s Executive Committee: Don Hoskins (President), Nancy Zhang (Vice President), Linda Stanley (Secretary), Kimberly Andino (Treasurer), Kristie DeKoker (Development Chair), and me (Founder).

Several specific ideas have been raised to expand OI America Board responsibilities for 2009:

— Attempt to raise $6,000 per year (10 Child Sponsors at $600@).
— Attempt intros to high-net worth individuals or foundations.
— Require active participation with one standing committee.
— Require active participation with OI’s spring and fall benefits.
— Require annual all-Saturday meeting focused on group dynamics / organizational goals.
— One-on-one mentoring of an OI Intern or Senior Intern.
— Serve as a resource to existing OI Chapters at your alma mater, if any.

OI Committees, like any other organization, is where the actual Board work takes place. The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors manages its governance. I strongly believe that the most critical ingredient for the success of Orphans International America in 2009 is the strength its Board of Directors and Advisory Board members.

I am busy this fall scheduling individuals on our Top Hundred List who have given Orphans International significant contributions in past years. I hope to meet with them personally before the end of this year to request additional funding. Like many other organizations, we have a President’s Circle for those who contribute $5,000 and a Founder’s Circle for those who give $10,000 annually.

The renowned child advocate Regina Skyer, Esq. has just agreed to host a pre-New Year’s reception in her Sutton Place home for all of our new Board members and heavy-hitters. Last year Regina hosted a dinner for us to honor Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a long-term supporter of Orphans International.

Sitting through the Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Summit, at the incredible Harvard Club, I was delighted to feel that Orphans International America is directly on track with Board development. Bankers at JP Morgan have said they feel OI is the next Habitat for Humanity or Doctors Without Borders. Bankers at the Summit, from many investment firms, said they would welcome the opportunity to help ramp up OI’s boards in 2009.

After years in the field, it is obvious that our programs are work well. OI Haiti, OI Indonesia, OI Tanzania, and OI Sri Lanka are all running smoothly. Our Boards will continue to sustain them. I believe we can sustain them better than we have in 2008. As always, my door is open to anyone of goodwill who can help us in our Interfaith mission of Raising Global Citizens in 2009. Join us!

To be considered for an Orphans International America Board of Directors or Advisory Board position, please send your résumé and letter of intent to Jim Luce at jim@oiww.org. For more information, go to www.oiww.org.

Pressing the Flesh with Politicians of all Stripes (7/04)

2008-04-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Although August is always the worst month for fundraising, it’s a great month for getting in touch with politicians. In August 2004 I hosted a get-together for New York State Representative Jose Serrano and U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney. Then I joined New York State Governor George Pataki at a dinner during the Republican National Convention in Manhattan.

With U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney.

I also joined company with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and North Sulawesi Governor John Sondakh. If we need to call upon government officials to cut red tape to help us move OI’s mission forward, then we obviously need to know them.

With New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Since founding OI Worldwide, I have met with two presidents of Guyana, my old friend President Janet Jagen and the incumbent President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Meeting with d Indonesian diplomats in New York City.

In Indonesia I met with North Sulawesi Governor John Sondakh and the Vice Governor of Bali, as well as former President Abdurrahman Wahid, known affectionately as “Gus Dur.” I met the representative of the Governor of the Southeast Province who attended our July 4th OI Haiti board meeting in Cyvadier.

Meeting with the Episcopal Bishop the
Rt. Rev. Zache Duracin in Gonaives, Haiti.

In addition, I have met with Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, Rt. Rev. Zache Duracin, who had introduced me from the pulpit in Gonaives, New York City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, for whom I held a coffee in my living room, and Indonesian Consul General Kristio Wahyono, who invited me to lunch last fall before he returned to Indonesia. In New York, I continue to meet political figures such as Congressman Charlie Rangel. Connections are vital to our ability to raise funds and remove levels of bureaucracy, both essential to allowing us to raise Global Citizens.

Hurricane Katrina and our Tsunami Doctors (9/05)

2008-04-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

Orphans International traditionally raised its largest funds in the fall, and with the Tsunami behind us in 2005 we were ready to show the world what we had done and begin to pay for it all. I was very enthusiastic about how well our contributors would respond to our Herculean efforts in Aceh.

However, on the last day of August, as the images of Katrina on CNN flooded our office, I realized that all funding for the Tsunami was over. Hurricane Katrina was turning our own New Orleans into a developing world disaster, and our president seemed unable or unwilling to lift a finger to assist those who were suffering. I watched in horror at the desperation of my fellow countrymen and could not understand where our government was in responding to this emergency.

In the middle of all of this I received an urgent email: Our Tsunami doctors, who had just completed their assignment with us in Sumatera, had returned to Jakarta to resume their lives. However, with the news of Katrina flashed around the world, they wanted to come to New Orleans immediately, if I would arrange it. What a thought! Muslim doctors from the developing world arriving to save American children. Although this was hardly the direction I had anticipated our relief to be going, I agreed on the spot and rolled into action. China Air based in Taiwan would fly my five doctors over. Everything was set, except for visas.

OI Sumatera Tsunami doctors arrived at JFK en route to
New Orleans to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The U.S. government does not like to issue visas from many countries, including every country that Orphans International works in. After the events of September 11, the U.S. government has been even more cautious in allowing Muslims to visit us. I called my friend, the Indonesian Ambassador to the United Nations, the Hon. Rezlan Ishar Jenie, who assured me that the U.S. did not want foreign doctors coming in. His government had agreed to fly in 200 emergency workers, but had been asked not to. George Bush might not care about poor people of color who do not vote for him, but the world had a different view.

Our famed “Tsunami Docs” assisted Americans
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

So I thought, How could I get my doctors U.S. visas? How could I pressure the American Embassy in Jakarta to issue them? I called two journalists I had met, the CNN bureau chief in Jakarta and the Indonesia desk editor of Voice of America in Washington, and told them I had written the American Ambassador in Indonesia a personal request to expedite the Tsunami doctors’ visas on humanitarian grounds, and I asked the two journalists to call the Ambassador to interview him on how the application process was going. They did. Within a few days all our doctors had five-year multi-entry visas.

Working with the Red Cross, our
Indonesian doctors stayed in FEMA tents.

They arrived about a week later, giving us time to come up with places for them to work in New Orleans. We managed to obtain temporary U.S. doctors’ licenses and they volunteered both in a community health clinic near downtown New Orleans, and with the Red Cross.

OI Sri Lanka Commences, in Memory of Cresenta Fernando (1/06)

2008-04-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

By January 2006, funds were received in honor of Cresenta Fernando to open Orphans International Sri Lanka. We are now in the process of choosing a coordinator for training at OI Sumatera in Aceh, Indonesia, identifying a village near Galle to locate the project in, and building homes for 12 children in the next several months. This also opens a seat for Sri Lanka on the OI America International Council.

The first home of OI Sri Lanka will be the Cresenta L. Fernando Home for Tsunami Orphans, in recognition of the humanitarian achievements of a Sri Lankan native son who worked for the World Bank until his death during the Tsunami on Dec. 26, 2005. Cresenta’s wife, Ariele Cohen, survived the Tsunami and now lives in New York. She sits on the Advisory Board of OI America. Ariele’s parents, Tom and Donna Cohen, are coordinating development for OI Sri Lanka.

In March of 2006, I made an initial organizing trip to Sri Lanka, which was highly successful. Orphans International Sri Lanka is being founded with the pro bono assistance of Sri Lanka’s oldest and most prestigious law firm, FJ & G de Saram in Colombo, as a Sri Lankan volunteer social service organization in full compliance with the Sri Lankan Departments of Child Protection, Health, Education, and Social Welfare. The project will consist of a small campus dedicated to assisting disadvantaged Sri Lankan children, specifically orphans. It will also feature a community health clinic and a computer center.

OI Sri Lanka has already hired Buddika Bandera as Assistant Director. Buddika is currently seeking to purchase the project’s campus, with two homes, on land outside the city of Galle. Wendy and Arnie Budin were active in forming the first Orphans International America chapter in New Jersey, specifically to raise awareness of the Sri Lanka project.

A Fundraiser for Ghana and Togo

2008-04-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

On July 24, 2006 people from different cultures and different generations blended perfectly in harmony wishing me a Happy 47th Birthday. Balloons covered the walls, ribbons colored the columns, ethnic tablecloths wrapped the tables nicely, and African music flavored the party, welcoming Togo and Ghana as OI’s next project nations. Hubert Eteh-Benissan and family provided delicious African food.

A crowd of well-wishers attended my birthday party
as a benefit for OI’s work in Togo and Ghana, West Africa.

The high point of the party was a beautiful birthday cake. As I made my wishes and blew out the candles, guests regaled me with Happy Birthday in six languages: English, French, Ewe (West African), Polish, Indonesia, and Hebrew!

Work Begins in Togo and Ghana (8/06)

2008-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 2004 Messan Minyanou, chair of the OI America Exploratory Committee for Togo, informed me that our new board had been formed in Lomé with a doctor, lawyer, artist, sociologist and English teacher – an ideal OI board composition. The Togo Committee had acquired toys from the United Nations School in New York for the upcoming Togo House in Lomé.

OI Togo’s by-laws were submitted to the Ministry of Interior for approval. Messan met that summer with the Minister of Public Health and Social Affairs, Mme. Suzanne Aho, who welcomed the project and assured us of her assistance. The next step in Lomé is the recruitment of a director and houseparents. Michel Kinvi served first as the OI America Togo Committee Secretary and worked later as my assistant.

OI Togo Treasurer and Secretary meet with
President to form new board in Lomé.

Hubert Eteh-Benissan of OI America’s International Council has made three trips to Togo to pull the organization there together, following in the footsteps of Messan Minyanou. OI America Council member Ernst Fiabu is spearheading efforts to create a project in neighboring Ghana.

Each of the villages I visited in Togo and Ghana, whether attending a ceremony in Gboto Village, Yoto Prefect, or looking at possible homes in Esse-Dzogbedji Village, Yoto Prefect, has a chief. In Dzelukorpe, outside Accra, there is a chief. And so of course there was a chief in Hubert Eteh-Benissan’s hometown, a village near the Benin border of Togo.

Walking across the dusty courtyard, with the sun shining down brightly, we disturb several large lizards that go scurrying off. The Reception Room is large, with a full screen TV playing French-speaking cable. The many assistants have sat us and brought an assortment of beverages. As the Chief enters to make his way to the large sofa, with pillows arranged so that only one person may sit upon it, we rise. Then, one at a time, we move to greet him, falling down on one knee with head bowed. The Chief extends his hand to me and I grasp it in both of mine. He pulls his hand back after a moment. I stand and move back to my upholstered chair. The greeting formalities are over.

I next introduce Orphans International in English, which he understands, although he replies in French. Hubert and the chief continue in both French and Ewe, the local language spoken along the coast from Ghana to Benin. The chief tells us that 250 years ago a British sea captain had agreed as a favor to the African royal family to take one of his ancestors to England to study European ways for eighteen years. Upon his return he served as a cultural and linguistical translator for commerce back and forth along the coast of West Africa.

OI Togo was set to open by the end of 2006, and OI Ghana in the spring of 2007. Following an exceptionally successful trip to West Africa sponsored by Air France, OI America Ghana Committee Chair Hubert Eteh-Benissan and I met with business, government, health sector, and NGO leaders in Lomé, Accra, and the Volta region between the two.

Press Conference in Lomé, Togo August 2006
where we introduced OI Togo to the media.

We presented OI to the African press corps in a press conference in Lomé, capital city of French speaking Togo, in August 2006. Flanked by Hubert, as well as the president of OI Togo, Dominique Awa, and the Minister of the Department of Social Affairs, the Hon. Agnélé Mensah-Atoemne, I helped field questions from over fifty journalists. With the Minister of Social Affairs and the OI Togo president beside me, I was in good company: Dominique Awa serves as Togolese Secretary General of the Minister of Security.

During the trip we met with what I began to refer to as the Usual Suspects: UNICEF Togo, CARE Togo, SOS Children’s Village of Togo, Afrique Aide of Togo, and the Chamber of Commerce of Lomé, as well as the Prime Minister of Togo, the American Ambassador to Togo, the Minister of Social Affairs of Togo, and Miss Togo, who has agreed to help represent OI Togo I also met with three chapters of Rotary International, which each expressed interest in assisting us.

On the road looking at homes and properties for OI Ghana,

In Ghana our delegation visited government offices, met with representatives of the Ministry of Social Welfare, and began the legal process to incorporate and register as both an NGO and an orphanage in Accra, the capital city of English-speaking Ghana. Dr. Nesfield Semey, a psychiatrist at Pantang Hospital, is the president of the Ghanaian OI board. He is offering OI Ghana a large parcel of land outside the Volta Region’s capital city of Ho to begin building a campus for orphaned children there.

Another OI family note: Dr. Semey is the uncle of Ernest Kwesi Fiabu, the chair of the OI America Ghana Committee. Ernest’s brother, Israel Fiabu, joined the delegation in Ghana. OI always welcomes family participation!

More than 100 orphaned children brought in by
Prefect caretakers to register for OI Togo.

The Duke of Bavaria, a Princess, and OI Romania (2/06)

2008-04-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

In August 2005, coming home from a trip to Indonesia, I had found a check in our mailbox for $20,000 from Duke Frantz of Bavaria to explore building an orphanage in Romania. I was flabbergasted. It turned out that a lawyer whom I had relied on during the Bali crisis was also the Duke’s attorney and had advised him to make the contribution. It is a small world indeed.

OI Patron Duke Franz of Bavaria waves to the crowd in 2003.

Slightly smaller than Oregon, Romania is perhaps best known for its beautiful capital Bucharest and the Transylvanian Alps. Its population is 22 million, of whom 45% live below the poverty line due to decades of dictatorship from Nicolae Ceausescu which began in 1965 and lasted until 1989 when he was overthrown and executed. A small number of Romanians (2.5%) are considered Roma, or “Gypsy.” Religions are varied, with the majority being Eastern Orthodox with 87%, Protestant (7%), Roman Catholic (6%), and approximately 1% Muslim.

Romania’s economic development lags far behind most of Europe. Per capita income is only US$7,600, ranking Romania 69^th in the U.N. Human Development Index, somewhere down around Venezuela, Brazil, and Thailand.

Romania is infamously known for its staggering amount of orphans, and its orphanages are among the worst in the world. The problem of Romanian orphanages began with the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. One of his goals was to spread communism by increasing the population of Romania to 30 million by the year 2000. He went to extreme measures to reach his population goal. Under Ceaucescu’s regime, every woman was required by law to have at least four children, which was increased a few years later to five children. Families that had fewer than three children were taxed heavily. Women were regularly monitored for pregnancy and did not become eligible for birth control until the age of 45. Importing condoms was an imprisonable offense.

The vast majority of children in Ceausescu’s orphanages are not actually orphans. These state-run “orphanages” were created to house the excess children that families could not support and abandoned. Orphanages were staffed by the smallest number of people who could keep the institution minimally operational, with no consideration given to the developmental needs of the children. Children in these institutions grew up without mental stimulation or physical activity, without any loving human touch, and often without sufficient food, clothing, or health care. Pierre Poupard, the head of UNICEF in Romania, calls these children “a lost generation.” They were closeted away from society, often malnourished and subjected to physical and even sexual abuse.

Conditions in the orphanages have changed only slightly for the better. Romania is currently experiencing a great deal of economic difficulty but is slowly moving in the right direction. The consequences of the nation’s many years of authoritarianism are lingering problems that will continue for a very long time. As Romania crawls from the rubble left after decades of communism toward a free market economy, many people are still suffering. International monetary organizations have reported that Romania has actually regressed economically during recent years. As a consequence of this economic downturn, many more children have been abandoned to the orphanages bringing their numbers to over 140,000.

Orphans International is committed to helping these children under a new plan developed specifically to deal with the orphans in Romania. In partnership with The Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, OI Romania will work towards de-institutionalizing children from state-run orphanages so they have a chance to learn, grow, and become global citizens.

Thinking about what volunteers I had available to meet me for a tour of Romania, my thoughts returned to Boris Stankevich of Belarus. How far could Belarus be from Bucharest, I wondered? Soon I knew: two days by train. But he traveled the distance in February of 2006 to spend a week with me in Bucharest – through a blizzard – speaking to a host of specialists, including Ethan Hawke’s mother Leslie who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania and returned to head an NGO. We spent a wonderful day in her home.

HRH the Princess Margarita of Romania.

The most significant woman we met in Romania was Princess Margarita, who as coincidence would serve, was cousin to Duke Frantz. She welcomed Boris and me to her palace, and we got along extraordinarily from the first moment we met. The Princess was enthralled by our approach, and quickly made the decision that the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation would partner with us in creating OI Romania. Although fancy myself good at making quick executive decisions, she stunned even me with her speed and resoluteness.

Following our meeting with the princess, we met with the Romanian Department of Social Affairs, and found another big-hearted person, Liliana Vasilescu, Executive Director of the Romanian Social Development Fund. She agreed to find three candidate villages meeting our needs in Transylvania. Our ideal village, we explained, would have a population of about 2,000, be made up of a cross-section of ethnicities, and have not only the need and desire but the necessary leadership in place to invite us to work there. Using the experience we have accumulated in opening our other projects, we have found certain universal issues that need to be addressed in each country, and we expect that they will be similar in Romania. The first important step will be to identify the appropriate village. Here we build up over time to a 16 hectare (40 acre) campus, either in one lot or scattered throughout the village. In each of our campuses we have become one of the largest local employers, and local leaders welcome us with open arms. One of the possible towns we looked at is Bontida.

Bontida is a typical village with dirt roads
located in the rustic Transylvanian Alps.

We hope to build four small houses for four adolescents each, for a total population of sixteen children aged ten to fourteen. The noted organization World Learning stressed the need to cater to a specific population, which we believe would be in keeping with our established model. These children are in the process this year of being de-institutionalized from large government-run institutions. The tentative working name for this project will be “Orphans International Romania in Partnership with the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation.”

Our next step will be to return there and visit each of the villages, which we hope to do by the spring of 2007.

At the end of our first organizing trip to Romania, Boris Stankevich and I were particularly grateful to HRH the Princess Margarita of Romania, Corina Crangasu, Executive Director of the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, and Liliana Vasilescu of the Romanian Social Development Fund.

Best Western for offered their property to us as a Transylvanian base for our next organizing trip, Air France provided transportation from New York to Bucharest, and Hilton Hotel offered to provide us with furniture, bedding, and linens.

The story of Romania's orphans has been heard around the world.

We were grateful as well to Peggy Bates and Ioana Ciaunde Santiváñez of the International Women’s Association of Bucharest for encouraging us to apply for funding to cover washing machines, dryers, and refrigerators; Lucretia Moldareanu, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages for tentatively agreeing to assist us with the training of houseparents; the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation for agreeing to consider us for inclusion in their program; and the U.S., Peruvian, and Japanese embassies.

We would like to extended thanks to Adriana Stoica, Executive Director of the United Way of Romania; Malin Malineanu, General Manager of American Express Travel; Dr. Bill Saur, Executive Director of World Learning; Maria Sandor and Bill Seas of CHF; Leslie Hawke and Maria Gheorghiu of Asociata Ovidiu Rom; Hon. Bryan Dalton, American Counsel General; Hon. Ryohei Tobibayashi; Mike Costache, Director of the Blue Heron Foundation; and Attorney Tony Raftopol. In the name of each child, may I give them all a heartfelt thank you.

The Dominican Republic and the Office of the First Lady (12/05)

2008-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

It is not often that an Ambassador from the United Nations invites you to his country to meet the spouse of the president. When this unlikely event does occur, it is best to drop everything and go. So I went, arriving in the Dominican Republic in early December 2005.

The First Lady of the Dominican Republic,
Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández.

One of the dynamic women of the 21st Century, the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Dr Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, met with our team to discuss the founding of Orphans International Dominican Republic.

Ambassador Lara-Peña met us at the airport and in minutes we were through Immigration and Customs. The Ambassador was firmly committed to the children of the Dominican Republic and had already established a project for orphans and neighborhood children in his own countryside hacienda. We were able to visit his project and were very impressed by it. The Ambassador’s project had stood the test of time and promised to continue long into the future. It featured a community health clinic, a computer laboratory, and homes for kids. In fact, it looked very much like an Orphans International project minus the international component.

Prince Albert Agrees to Chair Our Global Advisory Board (4/02)

2008-04-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Call me the master of the cold letter, but from White & Case, our pro bono legal representation, to His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco, the head of our Global Advisory Board, I have been able to enlist much support through the power of the written word.

Prince Albert first sponsored one of the children in Haiti for $600 per year. I requested an audience with him, and as a Haitian child sponsor, he was entitled to a colorful key chain rack pounded flat from an old barrel and painted in vibrant hues, which I brought to him at our first meeting. I identified myself at the front desk of the exclusive Upper East Side hotel, and the next moment the general manager was beside me, asking me to accompany him. There were men in suits scattered throughout the lobby, carefully monitoring the guests. The manager used a key to get to the floor, and then unlocked another door. Security eyed us at each stop. We knocked at the third door and were let into the living room of the presidential suite, where I waited with my bright blue backpack containing the key rack. Prince Albert soon entered with security standing behind him. I had asked his assistant what to call him, and the assistant assured me that “Albert” would suffice, so Albert it was.

We chatted for some time about his American experiences and my work with Orphans International. Finally, I presented him with what I told him all Haiti child sponsors had received. The men standing behind him were rigid as I took the package out from my backpack, hands in their jackets watching me like vipers. He opened it up excitedly, and proclaimed, “Oh! I don’t have one of these in my palace!” He seemed truly appreciative. Several days later, I attempted to FedEx him a follow-up letter and could not enter it into the FedEx system without a postal code. I googled the Palace in Monaco and found the zip code – and the palace. It looked like Versailles and I could not imagine that the friendly guy I had met, who seemed in many ways as American as I, lived there. I realized then that I was going to make some friends in high places.

Orphans International Opens Doors in Haiti

2008-04-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

Jacques Africot, our first OIWW-certified houseparent, was nearly ready to open Haiti House in Jacmel with children being considered from Mapou, where flooding had recently killed many parents, and from Mother Teresa’s hospital and a facility for handicapped children in Port-au-Prince. H.S.H. Prince Albert, Beatrice Arthur, and Peter Yarrow had already contributed towards OI Haiti.

“Haiti House” was originally set in Jacmel, but due
to problems with the board, we moved to Gonaives.

We had a neighborhood educational program in place known as Amis d’Orphans International (Friends of Orphans International) with an educational room set up with cut-outs and handmade posters. This program was run by Jacques Africot and served about 50 economically disadvantaged children living in the vicinity of our home in Jacmel. On one trip to Haiti, Pranav Gupta, founder of Development International, and I carried down an enormous assortment of educational toys and children’s books that had been contributed to OI in the U.S., as well as a donated tent and baby crib.

We set up the tent inside Haiti House with a large selection of colorful toys and the neighborhood children began to play immediately. The kids had been taught to sing songs and enjoyed their visit with us immensely. Educational toys donated by Beth and Eric Chernik proved to be a tremendous help and greatly loved by the children.

With two projects running smoothly now, in Sulawesi and Sumatera, I became increasingly concerned about the lack of progress with our third project in Haiti. We had attempted to recruit a board in the nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince, but we finally set up our home in Jacmel, a beautiful seaside town four hours to the south of the capital. Only one of the board members attended the opening ceremony. Due to the evident lack of commitment and interest of this board, I formed a new board made up of prominent leaders of Jacmel.

Unfortunately, this attempt to form a board proved to be as unsuccessful as the first! I had assumed the top people in Jacmel would be trustworthy, as they already had what they needed and would not attempt to use this partnership to their advantage. However, the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, the head of the local civic club, the mayor’s brother, and others all seemed to have only their personal interests at heart, and held our house hostage, waiting to get what they wanted. I refused to rent a far more expensive house belonging to one of them, pay them for their volunteered time, or hire their mistresses as staff. Because I refused to meet their demands, the house remained unused for two whole years.

By January 2005, I had enough. Hurricane Jeanne had hit Gonaives a few months earlier, and although not of the scale of the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, more than 2,000 had perished. There was great need in Gonaives and all we had in Haiti was an empty home in Jacmel. I flew to the Dominican Republic for a secret meeting with Phadoul Amisial, the human resources director for Haiti’s largest pediatric hospital and the director of the project in Haiti at the time. I did not want the Haitian board to know I was in the area. He crossed the border from Haiti by bus and we settled down for an entire weekend of talks. I proposed that he resign as director and form a new board in his hometown Gonaives where we could help children orphaned by Hurricane Jeanne.

Rose Nancy and Bernadine, her “baby sister.”

At that time the road to Gonaives was still flooded, and the relief community was struggling to get fresh water and supplies into the devastated city. The director hesitatingly agreed, and three months later we signed a three-year lease for a four-bedroom home, our first campus there. In the middle of the night we removed all of the furnishings from the house in Jacmel and moved them to our new home in Gonaives. By October 2005 we were registered with the proper authorities.

In June 2006, 26 children attended the OI Haiti Orientation, with caretakers, board members, and staff swelling the participants to 47. Sixteen of the children seemed to fit OIWW standards and the caretakers began the application and documentation process with the Gonaives Department of Social Affairs. The caretakers were primarily aunts, uncles and grandparents who cannot afford to keep the children.

Careful screening continued for our children. The Gonaives Department of Social Affairs screened all documents to confirm that both the child’s parents were deceased or that one was deceased and the legally missing, as per OIWW Standards. In addition, a volunteer further screened each child, and our director traveled to the hometown of each child to seek further confirmation of documentation.

The OI Haiti Board in Gonaives, 2005.

According to the Associated Press, that year a rash of kidnappings for ransom was adding to the misery in violence-torn Haiti. An average of four people were kidnapped each day that summer by politically aligned street gangs, drug traffickers, crooked police and criminal deportees from the United States. This was part of what one U.N. official called “an urban war” to destabilize Haiti ahead of October elections to replace ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Victims ranged from wealthy business owners pulled out of luxury vehicles on busy streets to working-class Haitians snatched from poor neighborhoods. Foreigners were prime targets. U.N. officials reported that at least 130 people were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince in April 2005.

OI Haiti board president Phadoul Amisial wrote during that violent summer, just before Aristide fell, “Don’t worry about my safety. Inshallah, I will be fine. Violence is anywhere now and I cannot stop work just for the violence. I can die anywhere.”

The new board and several government officials, together with our new children, dressed in their Easter finest, attended our opening in Gonaives that same month, July of 2005. A brave delegation from the board in New York, led by Doris Chernik, and Jennifer Prince, participated. It was an emotional moment to witness five years of effort spent in a country with no government, no electricity, and no infrastructure to speak of, finally yield a home for our children. Today, twelve children live at OI Haiti. One challenge is their education. Sadly, they were several years below grade level in academic skills, and if we sent them to traditional school, they would not be able to learn to the best of their ability. We decided to keep them at the house and open a Montessori-type multi-age group class.

Children and caretakers attended
OI Haiti’s Orphanage Orientation in Gonaives.

The project, surrounded by a ten foot cement fence, also includes a preschool and an ecological center to assist our neighbors with reforestation in the wake of the terrible floods last fall. Situated in a 100 x 150 foot compound, the property was planned to eventually have more than just a home: a community pre-school, a public health center, and a community computer center. The interim campus will hold twelve children, and plans will begin following the opening to move to a larger campus where additional orphans may be cared for. The campus will focus on green architecture, especially solar power and composting.

Phadoul was OI Haiti’s first director, who left when he could not see eye-to-eye with the former board. Now, as the human resources director for Haiti’s largest pediatric hospital, he has returned to OI Haiti as its board leader. Jacques Africot, senior houseparent at OI Haiti, trained at OI Sumatera, where he also learned Indonesian. He has become expert in dealing with orphanage-related challenges and governmental relations.

Haiti House opened in Gonaives.

Within the next 15 months, OI will search for and buy up to forty acres of land in Gonaives at a reasonable price. It will then begin building three or more houses on the land, completing them before the present lease runs out in July 2008. The first three homes will be named for Vladimir Pierre Chernik, Rick Luce, and Frances Alleman-Luce

A ten foot tall wall protects our OI Haiti
Interim Campus on the man road in Gonaives.

Each of the older children has chosen a younger child to take care of as if the child were their sibling, combing their hair or doing laundry for them. The children also help keep the house clean and are ready to play their role in the house. They now behave better among themselves. Our houseparents have a close relationship with the children and with each other. They meet to discuss the use of constructive discipline in the house, prepare a weekly program for school, meet the children at night for an evaluation of the day, plan the next day, and read a story at night with the kids.

Near the Haiti campus of Orphans International,
OI children cool off from three-digit temps.

The delegation from America flew to Gonaives in July 2006 to meet with the local Board of Directors of Orphans International, review the educational program, and discuss plans for the future. They also brought some 80 pounds of French books donated by another Roosevelt Island resident, Raya Barut, and a dozen math workbooks donated by PS/IS 217. The workbooks will made it easier to individualize instruction – essential when the range of skill varies as much as it does here.

The children of OI Haiti pose for their
first “family photograph” on Day 1.

The primary school children will attend the local school; the pre-school children will be taught on the OI campus. A few local children will be invited to participate. Even the older children knew little more than the alphabet when they arrived at the orphanage in October 2005. Within a year, all of them could read and do math at 2nd or 3rd grade level. Even so, the older children will enter classes 1-2 years below their age-appropriate class. The plan is to move them forward with supplemental individualized instruction during the school term, with summer school this year and in the future.

Abigaëlle with Walter, her “baby brother.”

While in the area, the members of the delegation invited the children of OI Haiti to the hotel pool. The children were ready in minutes and jumped into the waiting truck, ready for a swim. There are the delighted shouts, laughter, squeals, jumping, and splashing of twelve happy children. Afterwards, we ate spaghetti and pizza. Unlike many American children, these kids had no complaints about ingredients, and were polite and appreciative. They didn’t ask for seconds but happily accepted them when they were offered. The day at the pool was as much fun for us as for the kids, and we hated to leave.

Orphans International Haiti has a working permit from the Gonaives Town Hall, has registered with the DGI (Haitian equivalent of the American IRS), and is in the process of registering with the Institut du Bien-Etre Social (Department of Social Affairs).

Disaster Relief (3/06)

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Unexpectedly, we had discovered our true path: post-disaster reconstruction. This is what we have done in Tsunami-ravaged Aceh in Indonesia and in flood-devastated Gonaives in Haiti. Matt Katz, a leader of the Roosevelt Island community, wrote at the time, “I don’t know of a single group other than Roosevelt Island’s own Orphans International that is asking the question, “When the children are fed and housed, then what?”

How can OI respond quickly to a global emergency when we have such a tiny budget and spend less than 3% of that on bureaucracy? When disaster struck in Haiti, we had already established a presence in Jacmel, and in Indonesia we were firmly established in Sulawesi.

Many global NGO’s – Doctors Without Borders, CARE, the Red Cross, Oxfam, and Save the Children are brilliant at emergency care in the event of catastrophe. Other organizations, such as UNICEF, are brilliant at project assistance. But only Orphans International Worldwide arrives at the scene of destruction and builds a child’s future, pledging to be involved until that child becomes established in adulthood. Many organizations raise millions of dollars for each of OI’s meager hundreds, but unlike many organizations, one year after a disaster OI remains on the spot, continuing to pick up the pieces.

Recent floods in Guatemala and an earthquake in Kashmir between Pakistan and India lead our generous contributors to ask, within hours, what we can do there. The answer is, sadly, simple: nothing. But when we have a presence in the country already, and can obtain additional emergency funding, OI can move quickly. God forbid tragedy strike Peru, Togo, the Philippines, Guyana, Ghana, or Romania, but as we develop a foothold in these nations, if calamity were to strike, we would be positioned to assist the children.

Children of “Amis de Orphans International”
with new educational toys in our play tent.

OI America & OI Worldwide Brace for Growth Over Winter 2005

2008-04-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

With our ever-professionalized projects, boards, website, newsletters, and administrative operations, I realized we must focus on four primary goals for 2005: growth and stability of our projects, the institutionalization of OI America, and hosting our annual Worldwide Congress and Benefit.

By March 2005 we had more than two hundred volunteers and staff around the world working with us to move our mission forward. OI Worldwide had six officers. OI America had six members of its Board of Directors, twelve members on its Advisory Board, and an International Council made up of thirty-six additional members; OI Sulawesi, OI Haiti, OI Guyana and OI Togo had an average of six volunteer board members each; in Sulawesi and Haiti we had three or four paid staff members, and approximately double that number in volunteers. Finally, we had forty-five Child and Home Sponsors. Over the winter of 2005 we were taking care of fifteen children; by the fall of 2006 we had more than doubled this number.

Members of our International Council focusing at the Indonesian Mission to the U.N.

Those serving on the OI America International Council for one year included Tatiana Briones (Mexico), Ernest Fiabu (Ghana), Paula Oleska (Poland), Rick Respicio (Philippines), Phyllis M. Cort (Guyana), Hubert Eteh-Benissan (Togo), Pranav Gupta (India), Michel Teko Kinvi (Togo), Claud Leandro (Guyana), Benfield Munroe (Guyana), Dhiraj Singh (Guyana), Ron Bobb-Semple (Guyana), Delia de Cameo, M.A. (Mexico), Mwende Edozie (Kenya), Marlene Flom (America), Chung Lee (Canada), Pat Jordon-Langford (Guyana), Rekkie Longkutoy (Sulawesi, Indonesia), Rumit Mehta, M.B.A. (Tanzania), and Jane Pajow-Tombeng (Sulawesi, Indonesia).

Aidan Glackin, then President of Huntington Rotary Club,
pose with check to build “Rotary House Long Island” in Aceh.

First OI Council Meeting set for Indonesian Mission (1/05)

2008-04-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

The first OI America International Council meeting was held in the Indonesian Mission to the United Nations on January 6, 2005. We had requested applications for the 36 seats on our newly transformed International Council, with representation expected both from the U.S. and from our project and donor nations

Children of Aceh Thank the World (8/05)

2008-04-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Our children were dressed for the event in traditional Acehenese costume and were excited to see their new role models, our staff, recognized publicly by the Indonesian government.

In August of 2005 in Banda Aceh, Sumatera, Indonesia, there was a ceremony held by the Acehenese Ministry of Social Affairs in which, along with UNICEF, Save The Children, Islamic Relief, and other big NGOs, Orphans International was recognized.

OI Sumatera received a plaque and a citation thanking us for the work we are doing for Tsunami orphans. The event was covered extensively by the media and appeared on the cover of the Jakarta Post.

OI Sumatera’s Campus (2004)

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In a delightful surprise, the people of Puerto Rico came through with funds to construct “Puerto Rico House” on our campus in Aceh, Sumatera. They also provided the playground equipment on the campus. Spearheaded by José Jiménez Tirado, director of the Auxiliaris Foundation, Puerto Rico House will be fully funded by a series of benefits to be held this fall in San Juan. The business and entertainment communities of Puerto Rico have lent enormous support for the creation of Puerto Rico House.

Puerto Rico supports OI Sumatera.

Puerto Rican culture is wonderfully vibrant, with unique characteristics that distinguish it from any other. OI Worldwide expects that Puerto Rico House will serve not only as a shelter to Tsunami orphans, but also as a beacon of light and culture for the entire campus of OI Sumatera.

Puerto Rico House will be located adjacent to New York House. It will be constructed from brick, as will half of the homes. The others will be made of wood and elevated on stilts as per the local custom.

Our Health Clinic is located on the main campus, and our upcoming Computer Center will be located between the two campuses in a new office building, contributed by the local foundation Tengku Cut Malem.

Princess Grace Home for Tsunami Orphans under construction.

A year after the Tsunami, the Croix-Rouge Monégasque (Red Cross of Monaco) contributed funding for the Princess Grace Home for Tsunami Orphans on the Campus of OI Sumatera in the province of Aceh in Indonesia. The home will be a traditional “couples home,” two small homes connected by a common livingroom, and constructed from brick. The home will shelter four children in each wing for a total of eight children.

Until that point I had worked in either the World Financial Center with Merrill Lynch or Rockefeller Center with the Rhône Group. I was spending fifty hours a week being paid to help the world’s richest people, and then another fifty hours a week spending time and money to help the world’s most destitute: poor, biological orphans from the least developed countries in the world, many of whom had just survived a natural disaster, be it a Tsunami, a hurricane, or the AIDS epidemic. I had never thought that starting an international organization to provide relief to those in need would be easy, but I could no longer keep up with both of these jobs.

Events related to Orphans International were now occurring not only in Sulawesi, Sumatera, and Haiti, but the beginnings of efforts that would hopefully soon launch Guyana, Togo, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Togo, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and the Philippines. I realized as I submitted my resignation at the investment firm that I was changing my life, and the life of my son Matt, irrevocably. I was apprehensive. But tremendous forces had been unleashed as we had begun to help the young needy of the world. It was now or never. I would ride the tiger.

Our First Teenager: Bahrizal (2/06)

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We celebrated Bahrizal’s birthday on February 8, 2006. He turned 13, making him the first teenager in our care. We brought him a cake and gift and everyone celebrated, kids and houseparents. Bahrizal lives at OI Sumatera in Aceh, Indonesia, having survived the Tsunami of December 2004, in which he lost many of his family members and relatives.

Bahrizal, OI’s first teenager, is sponsored by Dorothy Windhorst, M.D.

A Letter from Wirda

2008-04-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Sponsors,

I’m so happy staying here because the children are very kind. Here, we learn how to do the duties which are given to us like sweep the flour, wash the dishes, our clothes, etc. I’m happy because there is still someone who wants to help me and my friends to have a better education. Every morning me and the girls sweep the back yard, in the evening we water the flowers and other plants. Since I came here, I have two roommates, Rahmi and Dina. They are my friends who always make me happy, and I also am happy for having a houseparent that is always taking care of all of us.

Wirda writes: “I also am happy for having a
houseparent that is always taking care of all of us.”

Me, Rahmi and Dina do everything together, like watering the plants, studying, doing homework, reading Qur’an, and before we go to sleep we read other books together. I’ve been given the responsibility to sweep the floor, clean the house, and tidy up things in the cupboard. That is what I do everyday. In school we study for six days and on Monday morning we raise the Indonesian flag. After that we pick-up all the garbage in the front and back yards of our school, and then we continue with sports in the school field.

My favorite school subjects are Art because I like drawing, Moral and Social Education (PPKN), and Religion. In my spare time I like to help my houseparent or reading together with Rahmi and Dina. I like sports like Kasti (Indonesian sport like baseball). We play it in school when we have sport class — and I also like badminton.

I really want to thank all of the people who have a kind heart to help and support me. That is all I want to say and please forgive me if there is something that I wrote wrong. – Wirda

Interfaith Service Remembers Tsunami Victims

2008-04-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

I joined the Interfaith Service for Tsunami Victims sponsored by Muslim New Yorkers for Tsunami Remembrance and Relief at Riverside Church in New York. It was a day to stand together with those whose are dealing with this unimaginable disaster, and to formulate a response with the help of all faith traditions. New Yorkers of every ethnicity and faith joined religious leaders and public officials, including Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, a long time supporter of OI America, in an interfaith memorial service and fundraiser for those who have been directly affected by the Tsunami in Asia and Africa.

In Sumatera the children play on playground equipment donated by the Auxiliaris Foundation of Puerto Rico. Pictured above: Bahrizal. Photo courtesy of Patti Gower (journalist, Toronto).

Fundraisers for OI Sumatera Tsunami Relief

2008-04-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) and P.S. 217 PTA sponsored an event on Roosevelt Island which raised $10,000, and the Roosevelt Island Gallery (RIVAA) hosted an art auction raising over $2,000 several weeks later. The Australian photographer Howard Jones dedicated his photographic exhibition of an Indonesia fishing village held in SoHo, Manhattan to Tsunami relief and funds were raised for OI Sumatera. In addition, Mike Daly headlined a musical presentation entitled Spotlight at fabulous The Metropolitan Cafe in Manhattan.

Ethel Grodzins Romm celebrated her eightieth birthday in the OI Worldwide office in New York, raising $22,000 for a home for Tsunami orphans in honor of her family, the Grodzins. From left to right: Mary Camper-Titsingh, Ethel Romm, Ivan Gare, Judy Berdy.

Public school children in Colorado, the District of Columbia, and New York City raised awareness and funding for our children in Indonesia. There was a Penny Drive at the P.S. 217 on Roosevelt Island in New York, and a read-a-thon at Spring Valley Elementary School outside Washington, D.C. coordinated by Barb Blazek. The prestigious Chapin School in New York City made a generous contribution as a result of a “mapathon” held by its Sixth Grade. The students studied the world’s countries, then collected a contribution for each nation they could identify. The students themselves chose Orphans International as their recipient charity.

Life Carries On For Tsunami Orphans (6/05)

2008-04-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

After much apprehension, our staff in Sumatera took the children to the beach as they had pleaded to do. We should not have worried - our laughing children frolicked in the ocean waves as if they had not lost their entire families to a giant wave only six months earlier. Our children around the world, who have suffered far too much for a lifetime, continue to teach us all lessons in putting the past behind us, moving forward despite obstacles, and embracing the future. Psychological support with full mental health access is an integral component of our child care.

A quiet cove on the western island of Indonesia
offers perfect holiday spot for our kids.

The joys of youth have been re-extended to our children.

International Team Continues to Build Aceh Campus (7/05)

In July 2005 I returned to Sumatera for the third time in several months. Telephone calls were made throughout the meeting, as each staff member carries a cell phone for voice and text messaging. The conversations batted across the office conference room/living room in English, Acehenese, French, Indonesian, and Spanish. Midwives from our Romm Family Community Health Clinic and handymen from our campus dropped by for their daily assignments. Our doctors and teachers dropped by to check in and get updates; our Romm Clinic was open and serving fifty villagers per day.

Four more children joined us in Rotary and Grodzins Houses within the next two weeks. We had to move quickly to place bunk beds in these homes to accommodate more children than we usually would due to the Tsunami emergency.

English Class students from the village share a game
before their lessons with our children in Aceh.

We continued to reach out to other NGOs assisting in the Tsunami crisis: the International Rescue Committee (IRC), UNICEF, Medicine du Monde, and an Indonesian NGO worked to provide us with Internet connection for our computer center. CNN Jakarta donated one of its used terminals.

After 5 am prayers, the boys gather for daily
house cleaning in Grodzins House at 6 am.

Interview with a Tsunami Orphan – The Story of Fahrul
Fahrul is a ten-year-old boy from a fishing village nine miles (15k) from the capital of Aceh who now lives in Grodzins House, OI Sumatera. After helping to break ground for Roosevelt island House, Fahrul told his story:

Fahrul, his parents, his sister, and his two brothers tried to outrun the wave, but all but he and his sister were washed away. Fahrul was carried three miles by the wave, was deposited on a mountaintop to be discovered two days later, at which point he was rescued and placed in an Indonesian government-run refugee camp. A very distant relative took his sister, but refused to take him.

Dr. Luigi and Dr. Bon Bon have opened Romm Health Clinic.

“I’m glad to have this new home that is clean and cool and comfortable,” Fahrul explained through a staff interpreter. “The refugee camp was really hot and we had canned sardines every day. Here we have great food. I love school… I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but maybe a farmer. My father was a fisherman,” Fahrul explained. “I would like to plant rice,” he added with a twinkle in his eye.

“I like my new home because I have many friends now,” he said. “I also like the color white because it is very clean,” he stated. “And I pray five times a day (like all children in Aceh do), although I cannot read Arabic yet,” Fahrul confessed with some embarrassment. Fahrul is now receiving medical attention because of his condition resulting from swallowing so much dirty Tsunami salt water. He completed the fourth grade on schedule, being driven to his original school from our orphanage every day, and now attends fifth grade at the local school.

Fahrul, who has lost most of his family in the Tsunami,
relaxes with a new friend.

Three of the girls from OI Sumatera
wearing the ubiquitous Islamic “jilbab.”

The children of OI Sumatera practice arts & crafts,
one of several after-school activities.

The Tsunami Arrives, OI Sumatera Begins (12/04)

2008-04-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

Within six weeks of the Tsunami in December 2004, we had raised enough money, including an anonymous gift of $60,000 from an affluent French businessman, to expand our activities in Indonesia with the initiation of OI Sumatera, joining OI’s existing project in Sulawesi. I am enormously proud of the fact that Orphans International had our first house ready to open in February 2005, only six weeks after the Tsunami disaster. For a small, all-volunteer effort, that was a challenge. We rose to it.

“The enormous scale of this disaster precludes any one organization or government from stabilizing the situation,” stated OI America former board member Tim Vanover so eloquently in our February 2005 InterNews. “However, if every NGO on the ground there could assist to their maximum capacity, it would alleviate much suffering and despair.” In Aceh, Sumatera, Indonesia alone there were 247,000 dead or missing with 100,000 children orphaned; at least 30,000 of these children were reported to have lost even their extended family.

Teacher Mike Daly from Roosevelt Island Middle School coordinated a joint project between OI Children and New York City children. Mike arranged pictures taken from my Christmas/New Year’s trip to Sulawesi into a slide show to present to his students. He is brainstorming with others on how to create a project in which American children write letters to OI Children in English and receive a response electronically, translated into English. As suggested by my old PTA friend, Erin Feely-Nahem, the Roosevelt Island Middle School Student Council also allocated $800 from their Penny Harvest to help support the creation of OI Sumatera.

Barbara Blazek Emanuel, one of OI America’s advisors and the architect of our Houseparent Training Program, was then a third grade teacher at Spring Hill Elementary School outside Washington, D.C. Barbara wrote the following: “For many of us, the holiday season was a mix of happiness along with great sadness for the victims of the Tsunami that has killed and displaced so many people. It was especially sad to consider the countless children who are now without families and homes. When events as horrific as this occur, it brings out the best in humanity as people strive to help those in need. And we are proud that children around the United States have enthusiastically risen to this challenge.”

Our first teenager, bicycle-loving Bahrizal,
needs one more sponsor to guide him into adulthood.

The project began in February 2005. The first four rental homes opened on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, epicenter of the Tsunami disaster in Indonesia. The campus is located in the Village of Lubuk, nine miles (15k) from downtown Banda Aceh

Meetings with government officials in New York, Jakarta, and Banda Aceh in January kicked off our effort to provide a secure home and support for children orphaned by this disaster. I had actually met in New York with Indonesian Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab in December 2004, just prior to the Tsunami, to discuss a similar expansion. Mr. Shihab went on to coordinate Indonesia’s response to the disaster. OI’s February International Council meeting was held at the Indonesian Mission to the United Nations. OI Sumatera will be composed of and work closely with local leadership in Banda Aceh.

By February, OI staff had begun the process of reviewing applications of orphaned children in the province of Aceh, and twelve children had already been approved and were awaiting placement.

We have the loan of an existing public health clinic and its grounds for three years as our interim campus. The grounds consist of a health clinic and residential building that we are in the process of renovating. Later we will build a mirror residence, forming a “U” shape with a beautiful garden where out children will play.

We created OI Sumatera to provide a continuing and long-lived base of support to Tsunami victims. We plan to fully integrate the campus into the local community and to serve as a locus of interaction for international humanitarian organizations working with Indonesian NGOs in Sumatera.

Grodzins & Rotary Houses, side-by-side,
opened for Tsunami orphans in Sumatera.

This interim campus officially opened in April 2006 with the arrival of our international delegation, including Jacques Africot of OI Haiti, Yuri Guanilo of OI Peru, and myself. Over 200 people, including representatives of the Indonesian provincial government, attended the opening of our campus in Greater Banda Aceh, where we celebrated our children’s first night in Grodzins and Rotary Houses. Grodzins House was opened in honor of Ethel Grodzins Romm’s eightieth birthday. Rotary House was contributed by the Huntington and Northport, Long Island chapters of Rotary International.

Groundbreaking for both Roosevelt Island House and Spring Hill House was incorporated into the celebration, which included traditional Acehenese dancers and the presentation of awards to the projects local sponsors. These included local NGOs, particularly Pak Djoni Rahmany, leader of the local village foundation. OI staff from around the world – America, Haiti, and Peru – converged on Aceh for the Opening Ceremony.

The rooms of Roosevelt Island House will be named after two of OI America’s strongest supporters: United States Rep. Carolyn Maloney and New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

Presenting an award to Pak Djoni Rahmany,
leader of the local village foundation.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote: “I am deeply honored by the prospect of having the girls’ room at the Sumatera campus named for me. It has been my pleasure to play a small part in helping Orphans International accomplish its goals. I hope I will one day have the pleasure of visiting the Carolyn Maloney Room at the Sumatera campus.”

We received a loan of 3,000 square meters in the village to house an additional 36 orphans in seven homes, the be known as the Campus Annex. Negotiations continue to obtain a full forty acres in perpetuity.

After Grodzins House opens in Sumatera,
our new boys wrestled on their new beds!

OI Sumatera was featured in People magazine, in an article entitled “The Children of the Tsunami” (June 13, 2005). In the section on “Where Your Money Can Go to Help,” People listed UNICEF, Save the Children, GlobalGiving, WorldVision - and Orphans International. This followed the story of April 18, 2005 in the New York Post entitled “Tsunami Saint.”

A Special Project – Orphaned Kids Raising Orphaned Cats

2008-04-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

Our children and their beloved cat “Mimouche” at OI Haiti.

A cat named “Kitten” and our kids at OI Sulawesi, Manado.

Much like the cats that have touched my own life, abandoned cats around the world are doing the same everyday for hundreds of orphaned children. Our children value the company their cats bring and appreciate their different characteristics. They learn that cats are not all the same. Above all, they connect to creatures who, like themselves, were alone and adrift in the world.

At OI Sulawesi, two of our children found a cat and named it “Kitten.” In Haiti, the children have adopted a cat and named him “Mimouche”. In their societies, cats roam the streets where they are never taken care of and constantly reproduce. The Artemis Project, a New York-based animal rescue society, has made a generous contribution to OI to cover pet care expenses.

Our Website Gets a Facelift (Fall 2004)

2008-04-05T08:01:00.002-07:00

In 2000 I began to create our first website. It was pretty plain, though, and in the fall of 2004 our then Webmaster Edwin Abang, and Communications Committee members Chung Lee, and Anthony Galligani met to plan the update of contents and graphics for our website located at oiww.org. Ethel Grodzins Romm, a member of the OI America Advisory Board, also made valuable suggestions.

Our new homepage looked like this:

Our first version attracted 12,340 viewers.
Soon, over 30,000 people had visited the second website.

In addition to design, our website will became a sophisticated tool to serve OIWW internally by retaining full documentation on all projects, properties, staff, boards, board meetings and children. This internal website for OI staff, board members, advisors and sponsors opened, featuring full documentation of incorporation and registration papers, board members and meeting minutes, property leases or titles, parental death or abandonment certificates, as well as full documentation of our children, including birth and custody certificates, heath and academic record, and regularly updated photographs.

The third version of our website, designed by talented photographer and graphic designer Michael Bierman, will be unveiled in early 2007. Michael Bierman has worked on projects for the 92nd Street Y and the Brooklyn Library, and has also donated his services to create a new look for our brochure series and the poster for our World Congress III. He has previously donated his talents and skills for OI in photographing the children of Aceh, Sumatera, Indonesia, and their successful post-Tsunami lives.

Discussing South Africa (July 2004)

2008-04-05T08:01:00.001-07:00

In July 2004 I hosted a potluck dinner to discuss “What Can We Do For South Africa?” Representatives from the Ubuntu Education Fund attended and described for my guests their work with the people of the Eastern Cape Province to develop quality education and healthy communities in South Africa. I quoted Archbishop Desmond Tutu in my invitation: “To be neutral in a situation of injustice is to have chosen sides already. It is to support the status quo.” To date we have not moved forward in South Africa but hope to do so in the future.

Working to Serve AIDS Orphans (7/04)

2008-04-05T07:22:00.001-07:00

The first open forum I held on AIDS orphans was in July 2004 in New York City. The Rev. Bill Tully, rector of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, my minister, welcomed me to the St. Bart’s Rector’s Forum to discuss our plan to assist in the AIDS orphan epidemic. I spoke on AIDS orphans to OI Worldwide leadership at our first World Congress in Bali that same month, and also discussed AIDS orphans at an international NGO leadership conference in May 2005 at the United Nations Association of Minneapolis. Here I was given the United Nations Association Community Service Award in recognition of my attempts to position OI to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa as a natural disaster, the same way we had dealt with the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti.