GLOBAL CITIZENS
In the Initial Report of Orphans International Worldwide, written from 1998-1999, founder Jim Luce wrote, “Without saints, secular or divine, sanctity can too easily be viewed as mere abstraction. Our children need heroes. The courage of Mahatma Gandhi and the brilliance of Albert Einstein make sainthood a reality for us all.” In his Initial Report, Luce called for 36 real-life saints to serve as role models for the children of OIWW as part of the process of Raising Global Citizens.
These global heroes included:
Mahatma Gandhi
Oscar Romero
The Dalai Lama
Thich Nhat Hanh
Katharine Drexel
Dorothy Day
Woodrow Wilson
Albert Schweitzer
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mother Teresa
Desmond Tutu
Aung San Suu Kyi
Nelson Mandela
Yitzhak Rabin
Pearl S. Buck
Menachem Begin
Heinrich Böll
Willy Brandt
Albert Camus
Winston Churchill
Albert Einstein
T.S. Eliot Gabriel
García Márquez
Dag Hammarskjöld
Ernest Hemingway
Herman Hesse
Yasunari Kawabata
Rudyard Kipling
Le Duc Tho
Sinclair Lewis
Thomas Mann
Eugene O’Neil
Anwar Sadat
Jean-Paul Sartre
Eisaku Sato
Isaac Bashevis Singer
John Steinbeck
Rabindranath Tagore
Elie Wiesel
Since then, Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) has presented its Global Citizenship Award for Leadership in Helping Humanity. Recipients in 2010 included U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Hellenic Republic Parliamentarian Dionysia-Theodora Avgerinopoulou, Director Charlotte Brandin of the World Childhood Foundation, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, and WCBS Anchor Cindy Hsu.