A LABOR OF LOVE IN JEOPARDY
Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
MONEY TROUBLES THREATEN BRAZILIAN ORPHANAGE OPERATED BY HUDSON-BASED SUPPORT ORGANIZATION
Author: PHILLIP E. CANUTO, Beacon Journal staff writer
The small, white concrete-block house in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is a long way from the neatly trimmed affluence of Hudson.
Yet for Nancy Cameron, that modest Brazilian house -- the home for 15 orphaned children -- is as close to her heart as any of the quaint buildings in northern Summit County.
For more than a decade, as a resident of Sao Paulo and now Hudson, Cameron has spearheaded Limiar, a group that provides medical, spiritual and adoption services for Brazilian children.
Without her organization, named for the Portuguese word for `threshold,' many of these children would end up as street kids, vulnerable to a life of abuse and violence, she said.
But now the orphanage that provides a key link in Limiar's chain of care is in jeopardy, a victim of runaway inflation in Brazil that has increased expenses while the recession in the United States and Europe has cut donations, she said.
To combat this financial squeeze, Limiar has been forced to sell a van used to transport the children and to cancel school bus service that shuttled the children to school several miles from the orphanage.
If financial help doesn't come soon, Cameron said, Limiar will have to slash the orphanage staff in half and begin the painful process of closing, turning the kids over to larger, more impersonal state and parochial orphanages.
On Wednesday, five of the 15 children are to be sent to other orphanages.
`It's a critical situation,' Cameron said during an interview in the basement of her home, the office for Limiar.
The orphanage has been a halfway house for hundreds of children, some of whom were adopted by families in the United States and Europe and others who were ultimately returned to their families.
These are children like Andressa and Geovani, who found a home with their new parents in West Akron almost three years ago, after almost ending up on the street.
Andressa, now 4, is bright-eyed and energetic, jabbering almost constantly with a visitor while tossing a doll repeatedly into the air.
That is in stark contrast to the severe malnutrition that led a Brazilian judge to turn her over to Limiar.
Donna Horst, Andressa and Geovani's new mom, had examined dozens of groups that handle international adoptions, but found herself most comfortable with Cameron and Limiar.
`I wrote to programs all over the U.S.,' said Horst, 38. `I knew as soon as I talked with her (Cameron) this was it.'
The relationship with Limiar was `very good, very direct, very honest,' Horst said. `I couldn't think of a more generous person than Nancy.'
That generosity may have contributed to Limiar's latest financial crisis.
Cameron is tireless in working with her contacts in Brazil, which she established when her husband worked there in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For Americans who provide regular donations to help the children, Cameron provides personalized updates, complete with pictures.
But she concedes raising money is not her strong suit.
`I'm not all that great in tapping into funding sources,' she said.
By philanthropic standards, the overhead for the orphanage is modest: about $4,000 a month. But it was only a recent donation of $5,000 that got the orphanage out of a deficit, and it has less than one month's expenses in the bank.
She remains hopeful that money will be found to keep Limiar and the orphanage open.
`My friends tell me things will work out,' she said.
Caption:
PHOTO: KEVIN CASEY / Beacon Journal -- Donna Horst gets a kiss from her adopted children, Geovani Crouch, 5 (right), and Andressa Crouch, 4. Horst and her husband adopted the two Brazilian children through Limiar, an agency based in Hudson.