As if They Were His Own
Former Toastmaster finds courage to transform the world’s orphanages.
Special Note: This story appeared in the Toastmaster magazine before the recent earthquake hit Haiti. Jim Luce has reported that the children and Orphans International Worldwide orphanage near Jacmel, Haiti, are safe.
By Julie Bawden Davis
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Caption: Jim Luce, with youngsters in a Haiti orphanage. The former Toastmaster heads up Orphans International Worldwide.
For Jim Luce, a trip to Indonesia to help a friend changed his own life. On a drive through the countryside in 1995, the former Wall Street investor made a fateful visit to an orphanage.
“I’m not sure why I stopped, but I felt compelled to do so,” says Luce. “The facility was clean but visibly struggling with poverty. There were six volunteers to care for 200 children.”
One of those children, a 10-month-old boy, stood up in his crib and reached out his arms when he saw Luce. “It was incredible,” says Luce. “Energy flowed between us, and it was as if he was saying, ‘I’m your child.’ I fell madly in love instantly.” Right then and there, Luce decided to adopt the child, whom he named Mathew. Nine months later he took the boy home to New York City.
As excited as he was about adopting Mathew, Luce felt haunted by the other 199 orphans he had left behind. After telling his mother, a child psychologist, about his feelings, she suggested he stop complaining and do something about it.
Taking Action
Today, Luce credits Toastmasters for giving him the direction and courage to make his dream a reality. He heads up the New York City-based nonprofit Orphans International Worldwide, which has opened orphanages around the world in countries such as Haiti, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The group’s mission is to help orphaned and abandoned children grow to become solid citizens of the world, and its basic principle is simple: Everyone involved in the organization must treat each child in their care as if he or she were their own.
Luce was a member of the Roosevelt Island Toastmasters in New York City from 2001 to 2008. Linda Stanley, a Chicago-based officer of Orphans International as well as a past member of the Roosevelt Island Toastmasters,,says the speaking and negotiation skills Luce acquired in Toastmasters help him on a regular basis.
“Jim is very positive and animated when he speaks, and he inspires confidence while sharing difficult issues facing orphans,” Stanley says. “For instance, he is in Sri Lanka today writing for the Huffington Post from personal interviews he is doing with children’s aid workers from the civil war conflict zone. His speaking and listening skills are carrying him through these challenging discussions.”
Luce ran the organization while working on Wall Street, but in 2004, when Northern Indonesia was devastated by an offshore earthquake that created the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami, the need for orphanages skyrocketed.
“Two weeks after the 2004 tsunami, I was in Indonesia standing in the mud trying to figure out what to do with all of the orphans,” he says. “We found a village that wasn’t hurt, talked to the village elders and got them to agree to build a project there.” During that trip he realized that he could no longer divide his loyalty between Wall Street and helping orphans, so he made a life-altering decision to quit work and donate all of his money, including his 401K, to Orphans International.
Initially, Luce created orphanages from small homes that could house four children. While these were successful, he eventually found that a full-care model works better in many countries. Such a system incorporates extended family caretakers in a community-center setting that includes vocational training for the caretakers so that they can theoretically afford to pay for the children in the future. Health support is also offered, as well as computer literacy and English language training.
Learning Compassion Early
Born and raised in Ohio, Luce was – not surprisingly – the type of kid who picked up stray animals; his first was a mutt that he got from the animal shelter when he was 7. Both of his parents were highly active in social change: His father led protests against the Vietnam War and was involved in Habitat for Humanity, while his mother was a leader in the Civil Rights movement.
When asked what keeps him motivated, Luce says, “To know these children when they come into Orphans International – often in poor physical and emotional health – and see them year after year, growing into happy, well-adjusted individuals, is my greatest reward.”
For more information about Orphans International Worldwide, visit www.oiww.org. The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation www.lucefoundation.org funds the administration of orphanages. For information about Jim Luce, visit www.jimluce.com.
Julie Bawden Davis is a freelance writer based in Southern California and a longtime contributor to the Toastmaster. You can reach her at Julie@JulieBawdenDavis.com.
Condensed from “As if They Were His Own,” published in the December 2009 issue of the Toastmaster.