With Brangelina and the Dalai Lama as Co-Workers, Port Chester Woman Leads Children's Charity

Most people get a job when they graduate from school. Heather Paul went to live among Fillipino tribesmen.

After graduating from Port Chester High School and earning an American literature degree in college, Paul moved to the Phillipines in the late 1960s. She spent three years traveling the island with an anthropologist, visiting and studying tribal minorities.

"You were always on coal trains, and up in the mountains in a Jeep in the rice terraces," she said. "We weren't exactly staying at the Ritz-Carlton."

More than four decades later, the Port Chester native never forgets the developing world. As CEO of SOS Children's Villages in the U.S., Paul leads domestic efforts to help orphaned and abused kids.

Because of the work she does in the U.S. -- and the role she plays in brokering celebrity participation -- her efforts reach faraway points across the globe. SOS Children's Villages maintains 450 safe havens for kids around the world. The majority of the children are orphaned or have been separated from abusive situations.

Paul and her organization receive a little help from people like the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Djimon Hounsou and Stephen Hawking.

And while Hollywood's foremost power couple has often been the butt of late-night jokes for their adoptions, and many paint them as sanctimonious, Paul said Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are earnest in their efforts -- and a boon for awareness and fund-raising.

Most recently, Jolie named SOS Children's Villages as part of her three favorite charities in Trade Magazine. The other two were Doctors Without Borders and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, "wonderful company to be in," the Port Chester native said.

"Obviously Angelina Jolie is at the top of the list," Paul said. "She's visited and stayed at our village overnight in Haiti, she's supported our work with Darfur refugees in a refugee camp in Chad. Most recently, she's supported our work in the U.S. with foster kids in Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I've also seen Djimon [Hounsou] a few times and that's been wonderful."

Based on the principle that every child needs a family and a supportive community environment, SOS Children's Villages was founded in 1949. It's grown into one of the largest international children's aid organizations in the world, with villages in 132 different countries.

When celebrities throw their weight behind a group, people take notice.

"Brand awareness is the most important thing," Paul said. "It's wonderful to have a group of celebrities who are well regarded in their field. Whether they are singers, actors, they bring notoriety to our cause, which is a natural thing. We just hope to cultivate a bigger group in the future."

Long before she was the head of the US headquarters of SOS, long before she was meeting celebrities face to face, Paul was your typical Port Chester High School student with a passion for teaching. Before graduating in 1964, Paul was involved in a number of extra-curricular activities at Port Chester, including the teachers club, the French Club, and the choir.

Later on, although she admits she "always had an interest in social issues," Paul attended Ohio Wesleyan University where she majored in English and later earned a masters degree in American Literature.

Soon after, Paul moved to the Philippines where she lived for three years, working alongside an anthropologist, traveling all over the island and visiting with different tribal minorities, an experience Paul said made a strong impression on her.

"I've had an affinity for developing countries ever since," said Paul, who also holds a doctorate degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland. "It was just an exposure to the world in a very intimate way. ... I really think that it's important to have a lot of exposure to the world when you're young. It influences the rest of your career."

Before joining SOS Children's Villages, Paul headed the National SAFE KIDS Campaign for a decade, and served as vice president of the National Health Council. She's also worked with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Paul, who lives and works in Washinton, D.C., is currently working on projects in Illinois and Coconut Creek, Florida, where SOS Children's Villages' first priorities are to keep foster brothers and sisters together, and to provide transitional living for 18-year-olds coming out of foster care, a group Paul says "really have nowhere to go."

At SOS, Paul believes she is in an ideal position, and has now set her sights on spreading the organization's name across the United States.

"I left SAFE KIDS after 10 years because I wanted to be in international child welfare," said Paul. "This seemed like an extraordinary opportunity because it had no brand awareness in the U.S. and it was a huge organization with hundreds of villages for orphaned and abandoned children worldwide. It just seemed like a wonderful cause and one that would resonate with Americans."