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 22 January, 2005 |
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by Arthur Kimball-Stanley
Orphans International (OI), a charity based on Roosevelt Island and active all over the world, is raising funds to build a home in Sumatra for orphans of the December 26 tsunami. One house in a group of 60 will be called Roosevelt Island House. OI is currently set to rent two houses at the epicenter of the tsunami's destruction in Sumatra as temporary housing for children whose parents were killed. The organization will then begin scouting out locations for a new 40-acre campus on which to build a 60-house facility for 240 children, hoping to begin construction of the new campus in February - only six weeks after the tsunami disaster. "We have never been involved with disaster relief before," said Island resident Jim Luce, founder of OI. "But we found ourselves coincidentally ready to respond to this disaster." OI has been operating campuses in Indonesia for the last four years. Its first campus opened in Sulawesi in 2001, followed by another campus in Bali in July of 2004. In December, Luce met in New York with Indonesia's Chief Social Welfare Minister to discuss an expansion of OI's Indonesian operations. A few days later, on December 26, only hours before the tsunami hit, Luce left to visit OI's Indonesian campuses and bring Christmas presents to the children. The tsunami struck while Luce was waiting in Singapore for a connecting flight to Sulawesi. Upon checking his e-mail at an airport café, he was greeted by a torrent of messages asking if he was all right. "There were televisions in the airport terminal airing the news, and stories began to come in about the tsunami, but nobody understood the enormity of it at that point," Luce said. OI's Bali and Sulawesi campuses, located far away from Indonesia's devastated west coast, were not physically hurt by the tsunami. But as reports of the death toll began to come in, "Everyone was in a state of shock," Luce said.
Ramdani Sirait, a former journalist, lived on Roosevelt Island for two years before leaving to open OI's campus in Bali. He is currently in Sumatra organizing OI efforts to help the area's newly orphaned children. Luce said that Sirait told him over the phone, "The only thing you can compare the destruction in Sumatra to is Hiroshima or Nagasaki, after the bombings. But in those cities there were limits to the destruction, in Sumatra it seems to go on forever." Luce and Sirait have begun negotiations with the local government to obtain, through grant or purchase, a 40-acre property outside Medan. Following OI's worldwide general development plan, construction would begin as soon as possible on a campus composed of 60 small homes (four children each), schools, clinics for medical, psychological and dental health, sports parks and athletic facilities. Emergency housing will be constructed first. Luce estimates the cost of building an OI campus to be around a million dollars. Over the last 10 days, OI has raised over $100,000. "I'm confident that we will be able to meet our fundraising goals over the next 6 months," Luce said. OI staff has also begun the process of reviewing applications of orphaned children in the province of Aceh, the area of Indonesia most affected by the tsunami, and is working to gain the necessary approvals to transport those accepted to Sumatra House. OI Sumatra aims to provide a continuing and long-lived base of support for the tsunami victims. The campus is slated to be fully integrated into the local community, and serve as a locus of interaction for international humanitarian organizations working with Indonesian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Sumatra. "Orphans International differs remarkably from many other institutions as our goal is not to warehouse
children but to transform them into global citizens," Luce said. "Through our interfaith approach, high adult-to-child ratio, and emphasis on education, the arts, and athletics, we are not merely rescuing tsunami victims, but attempting to raise the next generation of leadership in Indonesia." "The enormous scale of this disaster precludes any one organization or government from stabilizing the situation," said OI America board member Tim Vanover. "However, if every NGO on the ground there could assist to its maximum capacity, it would alleviate much suffering and despair." He continued: "I am proud that OI can play a modest role in securing the future of a significant number of the most unfortunate victims - the children." Unlike many charitable organizations, OI does not have expensive offices in Manhattan or paid staff. All of OI's fundraising is run out of Luce's apartment at 540 Main Street on Roosevelt Island. "One very large recent contribution was from someone who was going to give to a larger charity but changed his mind," Luce said. "The larger agencies pool your money and you can't see the impact of your dollar. All of the funding doesn't always go where you intend." Over the next few weeks, OI plans on organizing a fundraising drive targeting its neighbors here on Roosevelt Island. These funds will be earmarked for building a house on OI's new Sumatra campus, which will be named Roosevelt Island house. A year ago OI organized a fundraiser on Roosevelt Island for its Guyana campus, where there is now a Roosevelt Island House. Luce said he hopes to see the second in Sumatra. "Orphans International was in the concept stage when I moved to Roosevelt Island," Luce said. "The concept of Roosevelt Island greatly impacted the concept of OI's campuses. All our facilities are wheelchair accessible and 10% of all beds are set aside for children with disabilities." Luce is quick to point out that there are 35,000 new orphans in Indonesia as a result of the tsunami, and that OI's plans will only be able to help a few hundred. "But," he said, "you do what you can." He went on to say: "If we can carve out 40 acres, and other NGOs come in, and the Indonesian government comes in, then they will all be able to begin to rebuild."
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