Roosevelt Island Based Orphans International to Hold Spring Gala Dinner Benefit, The Realms of Indonesian Culture

Image from Orphan's International

Roosevelt Island resident and Orphans International Founder Jim Luce forwards the above invitation for all interested to attend the Orphans International Spring Gala Dinner Benefit on June 4 at the Indonesian Consulate.

Orphans International (OIWW) was created:

... as a response to the global crisis facing orphaned children. OIWW has established a network of locally incorporated homes to house and educate children orphaned and abandoned after the Tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and the 2004 hurricane in Haiti.

... In 2008, OIWW will begin to move orphaned children into more permanent family settings by arranging foster care for Tsunami orphans in Sri Lanka. In this "Family Care" model, OIWW will arrange for donors to provide on-going, monthly stipends for the financial, health and educational support of the poorest families. OIWW also provides school oversight, after school tutoring, enrichment programs, health checkups, and monitoring of the child’s wellbeing.

Last September, Roosevelt Island residents raised more than $10,000 for Orphans International.

Tragedies such as the recent cyclone that devastated the nation of Myanmar last Saturday, killing more than 20,000 people, demonstrates the great need for organizations such as Orphans International. According to the NY Times, a UN spokesmen said of the cyclone:

as many as one million people might have lost their homes and that some villages were almost totally destroyed.

For more information on individual nations in which Orphans International provides services, take a look at their country blogs for Haiti, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as well as future country projects.