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The Miracle in Orissa for Caroline Boudreaux
Unlike St. Paul, Caroline Boudreuax’s conversion came, not on a road, but in the dormitory of an Indian orphanage.
In May 2000, the backpacking Austinite landed in Mumbai, India. It was hot, 110 degrees.
“A horrible time to visit India,” says the former TV advertising representative, who had quit a lucrative job with the local Fox channel to travel the world.
When they discovered it would take $750 each to reach Orissa, Monheim-Poyner suggested: “Let’s just send the money to him.”
“No way,” Boudreaux, now 40, remembers saying. “You dragged me here and we are meeting this child.”
When they arrived at Manus’ village, the women received the “National Geographic welcome.” Men lined the streets; women took them among the mud huts. Drums played. Women ululated. A woman washed their feet and dried them with her dress.
Then there was Manus.
“There he was: this little boy,” Boudreaux says. “He took us into his mud hut, which was surprisingly cool. There were two rooms for six people, no bathroom or kitchen. We thought we had met the poorest people in the world. We were wrong.”
The Americans lingered in Orissa, doing volunteer work, making rope swings, reading English to the children, playing with them. On May 14, 2000 — Mother’s Day — Boudreaux called her mom back in the States, then attended dinner at the home of Christian Children’s Fund’s director.
The Americans were not prepared for what they found there.
“There were 110 bald, filthy, empty-looking orphan children,” she says. “They ate rice. We were given chicken.”
They sat through their children’s Hindu prayers. A girl, Sheebani, put her head on Boudreaux’s knee. “They are so desperate for affection, they push their bodies into you,” she says.
The girl fell asleep in her arms and urinated. Boudreaux went to put her to bed. “The place smelled like Hell,” she says of the dormitory without a trace of comforts. “As I set her down, I heard her bones hitting the wood of the bed. I thought ‘This just isn’t right.’ I had to do something.”
The dormitory shock continued to bother her. “I just couldn’t get right,” she says. She sought out an Internet cafe and wrote down the experience: “It was cathartic. And I was able to capture the moment while it was fresh in my mind.”
“This was my first introduction to real need,” Boudreaux says. It would lead to the creation of her Austin-based Miracle Foundation, which now operates four orphanages in India, two in Orissa and two in Jharkhand.
Some elements of Boudreaux’s upbringing foreshadowed this conversion from the business sphere to charity. She was raised a devout Catholic among six brothers and sisters in Lake Charles, La. Her mother was a social worker, her father a pharmacist, working the family store, Boudreaux’s New Drug Store.
She attended Catholic schools, then studied at Louisiana Tech University before transferring to Louisiana State University-Shreveport with a degree in psychology. Her aim: To become a therapist.
After applying to graduate school at the University of Texas, she moved to Austin in 1992. Then came the unexpected rejection letter. “I was devastated,” she says.
Other options awaited the cool brunette with crystal eyes. The self-described “quintessential Cajun girl” and “big hugger” radiates attentive calm, at the same time, seems coiled for action. That served her well during nine years as a sales representative, as she built long-term relationships and picked up professional polish, business skills and crucial contacts among CEOs and entrepreneurs.
In business, she learned: “The harder you work, the more money you make. I outworked them. I put in some hours there,” she says, but ultimately: “Money isn’t satisfying.”
She turned into a scrupulous saver, though, so she set off with Monheim-Poyner to visit Hawaii, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. After the convulsion of India, she separated from her companion to hike and meditate in Nepal.
Boudreaux couldn’t stop thinking about Sheebani and the other Orissa orphans: “I was going to do something if it was the last thing I ever did. If I didn’t help them, nobody would.”’
The Miracle Foundation, created as soon she returned to Austin, was first aimed at international adoptions. “I spent 2000-2003 working in that area before realizing it is sometimes corrupt and it is the children that don’t get adopted that need us most,” she says.
Out of money and patience after three years, she consulted with Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
“Graham said, ‘Who do you think we help?’ I said the homeless. He he said no, ‘Mobile Loaves and Fishes enables 9,000 people to give. Everybody wins. Your job is to be the bridge between the people who want to make a difference and the people who need a difference. Let the spiritually starving feed the nutritionally starving.”
Soon after that — in what some would call a miracle — Boudreaux discussed her plight in prayer group of Catholic women. One handed her a check for $10,000, on the condition she didn’t send it to India. It was for her to regroup. That helped her to reconfigure the foundation’s goals around orphanage mangement and to raised $75,000 at its first donor event.
To live in Austin without savings, she paid herself $35,000 a year. “It’s a far cry from the corporate world,” she laughed.
Besides the orphanages — one on the coast opened after the 2004 tsunami had turned independent — Miracle Foundation recently opened first children’s home: One house mother and 10 children.
The amazing thing to many potential donors: It costs only $100 a month to sponsor a child for a year. And one can still help by giving much less.
“And we have an ambassador program that enables people to come to India to see our work first hand,” Boudreaux says. “This is what I would love any Austinite to do with me.”
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Comments
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By Lisa Dirks
July 15, 2010 11:34 AM | Link to this
Chris and Amy: Thank you both for your amazing comments and your continued support! You have both done so much for our kids and to raise awareness of The Miracle Foundation. We all so appreciate your care and concern and your efforts to make a difference in our children's lives! We would not be able to do what we do without the support and involvement of loving and giving people like you. Namaste, Lisa
By Lisa Dirks
July 15, 2010 11:20 AM | Link to this
Erica: Thank you for your interest in The Miracle Foundation. It's the involvement of people like you that is making the difference for our children! If you want to learn more about The Miracle Foundation please visit our website at www.MiracleFoundation.org. If you'd like to talk with us directly, feel free to call the office. Our number is 512.329.8635. We look forward to hearing from you!
By Erica Leadford
July 15, 2010 8:52 AM | Link to this
I want to know how to reach this charity and become a donor!
By Chris Porter
July 13, 2010 8:56 PM | Link to this
After hearing about the ambassador trip from a good friend, I made the trip to India with The Miracle Foundation (TMF) in March 2010. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. Caroline and the staff of TMF, as well as my fellow ambassadors, truly are working miracles every day. The children are precious and the work being done there is truly making a difference. I would encourage everyone one to give...of your time and/or your pocketbook.
By Amy Brees
July 13, 2010 1:35 PM | Link to this
I went to India with Caroline this past March. She is an amazing person. We have been sponsors for many years and it is a real blessing.