Getting a vision from far off

Elia Powers

In late November, six Orange County women -- including three Newport

Beach residents -- traveled to Azerbaijan on a joint

information-gathering and humanitarian mission.

Representing Women of Vision, a national organization with 16

chapters, they visited an assortment of public orphanages and

private-care centers that handle children with disabilities.

The travelers encountered Communist-regime tradition of parents

placing their disabled youth in orphanages. But that arrangement is

being challenged by a group of parents seeking more control over

their children’s lives, the travelers said.

The six women will report their findings tonight to Women of

Vision members who didn’t make the trip. The event is open to the

public and begins at 7 p.m. at the Newport Beach home of Bobbi

Dauderman, one of the six Azerbaijan travelers.

Women of Vision is a 14-year-old organization founded in Newport

Beach and Laguna Beach with a Christian emphasis. The Southern

California chapter has about 270 members, national director Penny

Wood said.

Dauderman said her job at the meeting is to describe to members

the handling of the young disabled population in Azerbaijan, a

country known mostly for its rich oil supply.

“We were the ambassadors from our group,” said Dauderman, who has

traveled to Eastern Europe and the Middle East on past trips. “Many

of us had gone on trips overseas, but we needed to put a face on that

part of the world.”

The travelers plan to show meeting attendees videos taken from the

trip. They also expect to hear comments from World Vision’s Leslie

Harnish, project manager for children’s programs in Azerbaijan.

World Vision is the umbrella organization that accepts money from

and advises Women of Vision.

Harnish, whose husband is the United States ambassador to

Azerbaijan, spent three days with the travelers in the capital city

of Baku and will explain more about the country.

World Vision arranged the group’s trip, which lasted a week.

“When the opportunity came, I jumped on it,” said Lauren May,

Women of Vision member and a 15-year Newport Beach resident.

May and the others interacted with children at the orphanages and

private-care centers. May said she was appalled by conditions at the

former.

“It was the hardest trip I’ve ever done,” she said. “There was so

much intentional neglect there. It was like the whole country was

thumbing their nose at these children.”

May and Dauderman said they witnessed the same scenes at the

orphanages: children, many severely disabled and under 5 years of

age, left alone and placed in dreary rooms with only beds and

televisions.

Wood, who went on the trip, said World Vision is attempting to

raise money for the private facilities, which emphasize personalized

attention and learning.

Wood is confident group members will be moved by the stories and

pictures presented.

“Once they see the conditions the children are in, and once they

see the women who have changed the lives of children, they will be

happy to get involved,” she said.

Wood said the group sent $3,500 in May to a private- care center

started by a woman in Azerbaijan whose son has cerebral palsy.

The money spurred the addition of two new classrooms at the

facility, she said.

“There’s a lot we can do to better the situation,” Wood said.