Peters, Andy, \u2792

English

Furman University

Furman MagazineVolume 50Issue 2 Summer 2007 Article 236-1-2007Childspring International: A beacon of help andhopeAndy Peters '92Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazineThis Article is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in FurmanMagazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information,please contact scholarexchange@furman.edu.Recommended CitationPeters, Andy '92 (2007) "Childspring International: A beacon of help and hope," Furman Magazine: Vol. 50 : Iss. 2 , Article 23.Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol50/iss2/23C H I LDSPR I N G  I NTERNATI O N AL: A B EACO N OF H E LP A N D  HOPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . Ch ristina Jenkins  Porter never thought she was cut out for humanitarian work. During her student days at Furman, the now 41 -year-old Atlanta resident didn't l i ke her experience with Collegiate Educational Service Corps, helping ch i ldren at the Shriners Hospital in Greenville. She recalls that it seemed presumptuous and arrogant to th ink that she, in perfect health, had anyth ing i n  the way of help to offer an extremely i l l  chi ld .  Conversational ly fluent i n  French and German and armed with a political science degree, Porter graduated in 1 987 and pictured becoming a globe­trotting d iplomat or a Fortune 500 executive. For more than 1 0  years, she lived in the corporate world. She worked for a stock brokerage, an environ­mental consult ing firm and Mapics, a publ icly traded software maker. She learned how to handle everything from managing customer service to writing software code, from handl ing payrol l  to facil it ies management. I t  was a l l  j ust setting her up for what was in store. Her last job in the for-profit world, with NetVendor, was a victim of the dot-com crash in 2000. As a stop­gap measure whi le looking for another job, Porter set up camp at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta to help former Presbyterian Church (USA) moderator Fahed Abu-Akel .  Another volunteer at the church, Rose Emi ly Bermudez, noticed Porter's knack for office-based problem solving .  Bermudez was bui ld ing her own missionary project, called Ch i ldspring International, to br ing sick chi ldren from poverty-stricken countries to the Un ited States for medical care. She asked Porter to work for her, and Porter agreed - on the condition that she'd do it for only six months. That was five years ago. Ch i ldspring International's noble cause drew her i n .  C h i ldspring h a s  brought hundreds o f  chi ldren with profound medical needs to the States for treatment. Its best known client was 3 -month-old Noor ai-Zahra, who became the subject of around-the­clock media attention and earned the n ickname " Baby Noor" when she came to Atlanta from Iraq i n  early 2006 to be treated for spina bif ida. Ch i ldspring is funded by individual donors and the Presbyterian Church (USA). It relies heavily on volunteer fami l ies to host ch i ldren vis it ing the States for medical treatment. Not only did Porter never picture herself working for a charitable organization, but Ch i ldspring's m ission couldn't be further from what she thought she found interesting .  Before she started with C h i ldspring, she says, she d idn't  much care for  doctors and didn't th ink she would l i ke working with chi ldren. Now she can "spew out" medical terminology and health care industry jargon as if she's been doing i t  for ages, says Rebecca L. Sigmund, a 1 980 Furman graduate who serves on C h ildspring's board of d irectors. "Christina also has a strong stomach," says Sigmund, a partner in Powell Goldstein, an Atlanta law f irm. It 's  not uncommon, Porter says, for her to be i n  a chi ld's hospital room when a doctor or n u rse is per­forming a procedure that would make most people queasy. Dur ing one visit, Porter was on hand to watch a nurse pul l  a long tube out of a chi ld's skul l .  Childspring's clients, most of whom are from Africa, Asia and Lat in America, are afflicted with severe injuries or d iseases -eye cancer, large facial tumors, deformities, severe burns. Many of the chi ldren can't get treatment where they live and are running out of options. "We're usual ly a fami ly's last resort," Porter says. "There are many countries that don't Christina Porter with Bibi, a child from Tanzania who as an infant lost the lower part of her arm in a fire. With Childspring's help, and after several surgeries requiring skin grafts and tissue expanders, Bibi happily displays her new prosthetic arm (below). Photos courtesy Christina Porter. have basic, much less modern, medical facil ities, equipment, or trained medical professionals." Porter's title at C h i ldspring is USA Director, but her duties are wide-ranging, and she relies on her back­ground working for nascent-stage businesses to help her resolve problems. Among other d uties, she serves as C h i ldspring's media spokeswoman; arranges with f l ight attendants to have their a i r l ines swap comp seats for a chi ld; f inds host fami l ies in cities l ike Boise, Idaho, where she doesn't know anyone; spends the n ight in the hospital with a ch i ld; hosts chi ldren in her own home; and counsels fami lies and ch i ldren who are going through extreme emotional turmoi l .  "With Christina, it 's not just about holding the hands of the host famil ies, but coord inating whatever comes up emotionally with the fami l ies and with the chi ldren," S igmund says. Although Porter sti l l  would love a job that calls for her to rack up frequent-flyer m i les travel ing the globe to meet with corporate clients, Chi ldspring has helped satisfy her urge to travel by giving her plenty of exposure to world cultures . A partial l ist of countries where chi ldren she's helped live reads l i ke the Un ited Nations: Afghanistan, Iraq, Hait i ,  Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Paraguay, Moldova, Honduras, Ethiop ia, Colombia. " It's been a great way to share cultures, food and language without having to leave your home ! "  she says. - AN DY PETERS '92 The author is a reporter for the Fulton County (Ga.) Daily Report. To learn more about Chi!dspring International, visit the Web at www.childspringintl.org. FURMAN I SUMMER 2007 39 

Childspring International: A beacon of help and hope

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Childspring International: A beacon of help and hope

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