By most standards, Caroline Boudreaux had everything that people want. She had a successful career in advertising sales at a local Austin, TX TV station, was making good money, could afford many luxuries, including world travel. In short, Caroline Boudreaux was living the good life.
Life changing trip
Boudreaux and a friend decided to take a trip around the world in May, 2000. Boudreaux’s friend had been sponsoring a child in rural India for some time and they decided to make a stop there to meet the child.
The trip to India proved to be a major turning point in Boudreaux’s life. She saw, first-hand, the difference that her friend’s donations made to help the child thrive. She also visited a local family’s home. The family had taken in several orphans.
“I wasn’t prepared for what I saw,” recalls Boudreaux. “The condition of the children was terrible. They were filthy and bald. Their eyes were empty-looking. I wouldn’t even want my dog to live there.”
Her epiphany would come when she encountered a baby girl who was an occupant of the home. “I rocked her to sleep and was taking her to bed,” she says. “As I put the starving baby in a wooden bed with mildew growing all over the walls in the room, I thought, ‘What am I doing? How can I party around the world when these children are living like this?’”
The Birth of a Franchise
Boudreaux then decided to quit her corporate job and establish The Miracle Foundation. The Austin-based non-profit organization strives to transform the lives of orphaned children in the developing world, beginning in India.
The charity partners with existing orphanages to change the lives of orphans. The Miracle Foundation also strives to meet the needs of the homes by providing educators, vaccinations, and counselors, as well as funding.
“I was very thin. Now I am healthy and living with a house mother who is like my guardian,” says Meera, a beneficiary of the non-profit’s work. “I now have good teachers, clothing and food. Receiving an education is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Foundation with a difference
Boudreaux is not only concerned about the orphans in India but throughout the world. “There are more than 153 million orphans in the world. We want to ensure that our organization is scale-able so that we can help as many of these children as possible. Hence, we developed our franchise methodology that can reach any orphanage.”
“I finally have a great mission. I have something powerful to do,” says Boudreaux. “I have something money can’t buy.”
The Miracle Foundation on social media
*Featured image courtesy of Lynne Dobson
