Sharing their good fortune

Deepa Bharath

Watching a 4-week-old baby girl sucking at rice water did it for

Brigitte Tehranchi.

The Newport Coast resident visited a Baja California orphanage,

where she saw the newborn being fed the food as a substitute for

formula.

“Being the mother of an infant, I just couldn’t stand there and

take it,” Tehranchi said.

So she, along with Laura Giffin, another Newport Coast resident,

decided to do something about it. Last year, they started the Newport

Coast Cares Halloween Carnival. This year, they will do it again for

the children of Baja.

The duo started Newport Coast Cares, an informal group of about 30

people, to help in this humanitarian effort. Giffin also sits on the

board of Corazon de Vida Foundation, which supports orphanages in

Baja. Last year, Newport Coast Cares raised about $17,000 for the

cause.

Giffin and Tehranchi have visited Mexico several times, bringing

groups that typically spend a day playing with and cooking for the

children.

“It makes me feel I’m not wasting my life on frivolous,

materialistic things,” Giffin said.

Tehranchi said the trips to Mexico have made her more passionate

on the issue.

“It sounds kind of cliche to say it’s for the orphans,” she said,

“but when you go down there and look into their eyes, you see their

hunger, you see their need and you see what they have to offer.”

The response from the community to the carnival has been terrific,

Giffin said. She expects about 1,000 people at this year’s carnival.

Giffin and Tehranchi said they hope to expand the activities of

Newport Coast Cares, which is not yet a nonprofit organization.

“We want to turn it into a parent-child philanthropic

organization,” she said. “We want to show our children that we need

to share our good fortune with those who are not as fortunate.”