Caring for orphans labor of love for one man

Sun, 09 Dec 2001, 00:00 WIB | Source: JP

Grace Segran, Contributor, Bogor, West Java

At 21 years of age, when most people are completing their
studies or are at the threshold of their career, Emmanuel
Laumonier is working tirelessly with 26 orphans in Bogor and 100
others throughout Indonesia.

This young man of French and Indonesian parentage is shy, even
taciturn. But talk to him about his kids, and he immediately
lights up. He speaks enthusiastically about sweet little Tika,
whom he nursed while she was very ill with typhoid, Jevrin who
loves to draw, Martin who runs for the school and many others.

What started as an International Baccalaureate (IB) social-
based project while studying at the Jakarta International School
(JIS) became a passion for him.

"Initially, I taught English to kids in the orphanages but by
the second year, we had become good friends," Emmanuel said. "I
began to go there more frequently, and the kids and I became very
close. Soon I was doing everything I could to help them -- from
shopping for food and cooking, to washing the dishes, helping
them clean the orphanage and giving them what little money I
had."

Despite spending so much time with the kids, he finished top
of the IB exams in 1997. JIS' vice-principal of academic affairs,
Roger Brumby, remembers Emmanuel as "a very talented, very
concerned young man, most modest in everything he did".

Emmanuel was a member of the National Honor Society. He was
also involved in performing and the visual arts. He plays the
guitar and clarinet. As an eighth grader, he illustrated a book
called To Your Good Health, Your Majesty written by a JIS history
teacher, David Alexander.

In 1997, he tore himself away from his kids to attend Bard
College in upstate New York, where he was awarded a full
scholarship. He graduated in three years instead of four, a
double major in anthropology and biology.

Emmanuel had the world at his feet but he chose a higher
calling -- to fill the lives of the forgotten, precious souls
with a love and sense of "family" that they would otherwise not
have known.

Indeed he has touched and transformed the lives of many of the
orphans who were abused and abandoned street children. He cares
for them as though they were his own. Through patience and love,
many of them are on their way to becoming good citizens.

Looking at Richard Oroh, 7, today, for example, you would not
believe that he grew up in the company of motorbike gangs. He
stole Rp 150,000 from Emmanuel the first night he came, and hit
and kicked the other kids every day. After three months of love
and care at the home, Richard became a hardworking and
enterprising young lad and rose to become the second in his
class.