Orphans International is based on “Mathew’s Rule.” Is the facility clean enough for your own child? Is the food nutritious enough for your own child? Is the education robust enough for your own child? Would you let your kid use that bathroom or sleep in that bed?
New York, N.Y. Mathew James Tendean Luce was found at the age of ten months in a Presbyterian orphanage on an island in the village of Tondano, region of Minahasa, province of North Sulawesi, Island of Sulawesi once called ‘The Celebes Islands of the Dutch East Indies,’’ nation of Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean, between the Philippines and Singapore.
He inspired my mother Frances Dudley Alleman-Luce and I to conceptualize “Orphans International Worldwide,” which came to fruition after the death of my mother in 2001.
Our goal was to raise global citizens, indeed, raise global leaders.
Matt came to live with us in Queens before we moved to Roosevelt Island in 1999. In Elmhurst, he attended his first school in Chinese, went on to a Catholic Kindergarten where the nuns were concerned he only colored in black. I could not comprehend why having a unique style was a problem.
In first grade, Matt would Indonesian-style point with his middle finger, creating a discussion with his father in the first parent-teacher conference.
I saw this as a great opportunity for the teacher to explain cultural differences to the young students. The teacher viewed things differently: Mathew would need to gesture appropriately or be expelled. So much for ‘global citizenship.’
Matt attended P.S. 214 on Roosevelt Island, then Baruch Middle School in Manhattan before settling down with The Child School-Legacy High School from which he graduated.
In junior high school Matt traveled back and forth frequently to Indonesia where I coordinated orphan projects in Sulawesi, Sumatra and Bali. They maintained a home in West Jakarta near the popular Mall Taman Anggrek.
Today, Matt resides between Roosevelt Island and Queens while finishing the Borough of Manhattan Community College where he studies Liberal Arts including Chinese. He is a member of the Board of Directors of both Orphans International Worldwide and the J. Luce Foundation.
Orphans International Inspiration: “Mathew’s Rule” (May 25, 2019)
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