Day #16 As a child I loved watching "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriot". Sara Buckner (O'Meara) and Yvonne Lime (Fedderson) were two young girls that would play the girlfriends of Ricky and David from time to time. They thought their life path was to one of acting, awards, parties and perhaps a movie they could star in. Life had another plan.
In 1959 they went to Japan on a goodwill mission for the United States. As they were walking the streets of Tokyo the young women came across eleven orphaned children living on the streets. The children were half Japanese and half American. Sara and Yvonne did not give the children money or take them to a local diner, they took all eleven children back to their hotel room, cleaned them up, fed them and got ready to take the small group to an orphanage in the morning. Life had just stepped in to show Buckner and Lime what their true life path was to become. The children were turned away from all orphanages due to their mixed race. Now what?
A woman in Japan, Kin Horvehig, would take all eleven children into her one room hut if the young women would promise to send money to care for the orphans. An agreement was reached. Word spread quickly and 100 mixed race children were dropped at the hut, all needing care. An awesome task for a seasoned veteran of non for profit but Sara and Yvonne knew nothing about orphanages, fund raising or regulations. They still said yes. Their hearts would only allow them to jump in and help. International Orphans Inc. was soon founded and eventually four orphanages were built.
In 1969 the US government again called upon the two women to help set up orphanages in Vietnam to care for the many children abandoned from the union of Americans and Vietnamese. Once it was time to pull out of Vietnam (1975)Sara and Yvonne organized and helped arrange Operation Baby Lift bringing a thousand babies back to the U.S. ready to be received by parents eager to adopt the children. An awesome accomplishment benefiting generations, but the path that life had laid out for the big hearted women was still not at an end.
A part of the fund raising that Sara and Yvonne did involved a great deal of speaking to large groups. After a speech they gave about The International Orphans, Inc. Nancy Reagan approached the pair. Mrs. Reagan asked Sara and Yvonne to turn their attention (and passions) towards the nations best kept secret, child abuse. Child abuse was the leading cause of death in young children (it continues to be the leading cause of death for young children). The two women immediately took up this important cause and in 1976 The International Orphans, Inc. name was officially changed to Children's Village USA. Today the organization is better known as Child Help.
Child Help became the life long mission for Sara and Yvonne who are still active in heading this wide reaching charity. They were able to produce the first film ("A Time to Love") that showed the damages and secrecy of child abuse. In 1982, they created a nation wide help line, 1.800.4.A. CHILD where suspected abuse could be reported anonymously and help given to those on the verge of harming a child. The line is manned 24/7. This charity utilizes 91 cents of every dollar collected, very little is used for overhead. Today Child Help has the hot line, residential treatment facilities, and advocacy centers throughout the U.S.
The two young women, who thought they would become actresses, have been nominated for The Nobel Prize in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Life had a different path for these ladies and luckily they took the path less traveled.
Their Action: They saw a need and acted immediately. They acted from their heart and then used their head. They did what it took to help.
For more information on this dynamic duo and to see what you could do to help or to gain additional information on child abuse please go to www.childhelp.org and when you get a chance hug your boy or girl.
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