In such conditions, it is no surprise
that many parents die, leaving their children to a nation unable to
take care of them. On the streets, children are disturbingly
vulnerable; evil adults will cripple orphaned children in order to
use them for begging.
Caroline Boudreaux’s story
I created the Miracle Foundation on
Mother’s Day in 2000, after a life-changing trip to India with
my close friend, Chris Monheim. For five years, Chris had
sponsored a little boy named Manus through the Christian
Children’s Fund (CCF) and wanted to meet him to find out if he
was receiving her support. We arrived in India in May, and after a
ceremonial village welcome, we met Manus. He was exactly as his
letters had described and had, indeed, received the sponsorship
money and letters from Chris. She was thrilled to meet him and
pleased that her money was helping. But we couldn’t believe how
poor he was; his entire family of five lived in a two-room mud hut
about the size of a typical American bathroom. We soon learned
that this family was one of the lucky ones.
On May 14, Domadoor Sahoo, the
director of CCF, invited us to his home for dinner. Nothing
prepared me for what I was about to witness. When we got to the
director’s house, we found 100 beautiful, smiling, motherless
and fatherless children. I had never thought about orphans before
that night, much less held them, but we were soon singing with
them, praying with them, rocking them, tickling them, and kissing
them. They were truly precious! Later that evening, a little girl
named Sheebani came and put her head on my knee. She was so tired
that when I picked her up, she literally pushed her body into my
arms. I sang her a lullaby and rocked her to sleep. When I went
upstairs to put her in her crib, there wasn’t one. Instead, her
room had 30 wooden slatted beds. No pillows, no mattresses, no
blankets, just wooden slats similar to those on a picnic table. It
was chilling and incomprehensible. When I heard Sheebani’s bones
hit that wooden bed, I was broken-hearted. I couldn’t believe
that orphans had to live this way. At that moment I knew I had to
do something to help, and I had to act soon.
The Miracle Foundation was established
that day, Mother’s Day 2000. In 2007, we raised more than one
million dollars with six orphanages in our network. And today The
Miracle Foundation is one of a handful of American organizations
allowed to organize domestic adoptions in India. But the miracle
has just begun! With more help, more children like Sheebani can be
given the bedding, the food, and the school supplies they need to
break the cycle of poverty and have a chance at a real future.
Caroline Boudreaux - Founder of The
Miracle Foundation
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
The Miracle Foundation relies on
public generosity to carry out its work. This can take the form of
one time donations or the sponsorship of a child.
Because the orphanages are in India,
our American dollars go a long way towards improving children's
lives with healthy food, tuition for education, better living
conditions, clothing, medical care and hope for a bright future.
The Miracle Foundation provides help
and hope to the orphaned children of India. While adoption is one
way to help, most orphaned children in India are not eligible for
adoption. Unwed pregnancy is a taboo in India. Many unwed,
pregnant women leave their villages, have their babies on the
streets, and are too poor to care for their children. So, they
abandon them at an orphanage and never sign the release that makes
them legally adoptable. Our programs get to the heart of this
problem, helping these women, their new infants, and permanently
un-adoptable orphans.
The Sponsorship Program
The Sponsorship Program allows a
surrogate family in the U.S. to help financially and emotionally
support these children. For some orphans, yours will be the only
family they have been able to call their own. The children will
get the sense of belonging that only a family (even one
thousands of miles away) can provide. You can send a picture to
the children so they will know who is supporting and caring for
them. In return, you’ll receive letters, prayers, report
cards, pictures, and your child’s history. Choose a
sponsorship level and change a life forever:
$200/month ($2,400/year): Infant
Sponsorship
A gift at this level provides
inoculations, food, and clothing for infants brought to the
orphanage.
$100/month ($1,200/year): Child
Sponsorship
A gift at this level provides food,
clothing, full education costs and inoculations for a child. It
also helps cover costs of salaries for teachers, house mothers,
and orphanage administrators.
Lunch and Learn Sponsorship
Program
In order to ensure the United
Nations ratified the Children’s Bill of Rights, The Miracle
Foundation has created the Lunch & Learn program. Most of
the children living in orphanages today have either one or two
parents who are living in the poorest of conditions.
By providing these children with two
meals a day, an education, and free daycare, we guarantee their
right to live with their parents, if possible. The child you are
sponsoring is part of this amazing program that is designed to
keep families together. The program is freeing up the parent(s)
to earn a living wage and keep their child instead of sending
their children to live with us. Thanks to you, the children are
thriving because they are supervised, fed, and educated, while
interacting with other children their age. The Lunch & Learn
Program is the best way to make an impact on the entire
community’s children, rather than focusing solely on the
children living in the orphanage.
$45/month ($540/year):
A gift at this level provides
education costs and two meals per day for a village child
attending school at a Miracle Foundation orphanage.
Give a Miracle Program
Our Give a Miracle Program gives you
the opportunity to donate a much-needed item to one of our
orphanages. Choose items such as bikes, bunk beds, or
schoolbooks from our online catalog. The items in this catalog
will be used to support orphans and fill the rooms of 10
cottages in our Children’s Villages currently under
construction in India. Here’s how it works; you choose an item
from the catalog and make a donation for that item in
someone’s name. The recipient of your gift will receive a card
with a personalized message from you along with a description of
the gift you have donated in their name. Purchase as a Holiday
gift, Christmas gift, Birthday gift, or just because.
IMPACT Travel
IMPACT Travel is volun-tourism at
its best. Our service team trip to India is a rare opportunity
to spend time with the world’s children in a way that most
people couldn’t imagine. A trip to one of The Miracle
Foundation homes will be one of the most fulfilling trips of
your life! Contact The Miracle Foundation or Barbara Joubert,
our Travel Coordinator, at (512) 329-8635 to express interest in
traveling with us. You can check out our available tour dates
and costs associated with the travel online at
www.miraclefoundation.org (http://www.miraclefoundation.org)
. There you can also RSVP to attend a monthly Impact Travel
Orientation, which will provide information about fundraising,
US passports, and other travel tips. Get ready to make an
IMPACT…on your life as well!
