Style Substance Soul | An online gathering of women who strive to look good, feel good, do good.

It’s tradition for a boy or girl getting Bar or Bat Mitzvahed to do a Mitzvah project — or good deed — which usually involves giving a portion of their gifts to charity or asking guests to bring donations of some kind for those in need. For his Mitzvah project, Lou Tauber is going a step further. After seeing the documentary, “Making the Crooked Straight,” he decided to sponsor the surgery of a child in Ethiopia who suffers from spinal tuberculosis. The surgery costs $13,000 and Lou has already raised close to half of that. Amy spoke to this very special young man about this very special project.

Tell me why you chose this as your Mitzvah project.

A couple of years ago, my parents went to Ethiopia and they met with a doctor named Rick Hodes who helps children there who have a deadly disease called spinal tuberculosis. He raises money for these kids to have surgery in Ghana, which saves their lives. He has adopted about 20 kids in Ethiopia, and he lives there with them and tries to get them surgeries.

What was it about your parents’ experience that inspired you to take on this project?

I just thought it was really nice how he pretty much gave up his life to help these kids. I mean, he didn’t get married, didn’t have his own kids, didn’t have a family. He just made it his mission to save their lives.

This is quite an unusual project for someone your age. Most kids either don’t do anything or just donate a portion of their gift money. What is the most rewarding thing so far in such a hands on project for you?

Well, I am just one kid and I thought it was amazing that I could actually save another kid’s life. From thousands of miles away, I could really help.

So how did you start? Obviously you have been thinking about this long before you were Bar Mitzvah age.

I thought it would be really hard to get the money because it is a very expensive surgery, so I decided I would have a fundraiser. Then they came out with this documentary, “Making the Crooked Straight,” [see our interview with filmmaker Sue Cohn Rockefeller in the Interviews section] and I thought that would be perfect to show at the event.

I was at that fundraiser and saw the film. There are some dramatic images in the film of the people affected by this disease. How did those images affect you when you first saw the film?

That is what got me to do this. Those kids really need our help. You just look at them and . . . if someone just told you they had this big growth in their spines, you would be like “whatever,” but if you actually see it, it means a lot more.

Have you been in touch with either the doctor or the child who will be the recipient of your gift?

I talked to the doctor over the phone from Ethiopia, and he was saying that it was really nice, that one of the goals he wanted to accomplish when he started doing what he is doing, was to reach out to other kids to help.

What has been the hardest part of the project so far?

Getting people’s attention. I held the fundraiser where we showed the movie and I have been emailing people, friends from other states, so they could help.

Do you know who will be the recipient of your gift?

He is a 12 year old boy, so he is my age. When he was a baby, his parents abandoned him and an old lady took care of him until she got too old and sick. She dropped him off at an orphanage where he was reunited with his mom and that is where he met Dr Hodes. He doesn’t live with Dr. Hodes, but he goes there every week or so to play with the other kids who have the same disease, and Dr Hodes tries to help him.

You two are the same age, but your lives are so different.

So different. That is what I thought was so amazing.

Does the surgery have to happen at a certain time to be most effective?

He was close to the deadline of needing the surgery, so the doctor in Ghana agreed to perform it even though he hasn’t gotten paid yet. This disease gets worse and worse over time. By September, his spine would have been so deformed he could have died, so it is lucky that he got the surgery already. There’s a series of surgeries that all happen at the same time.

What has been the most surprising part of this process for you?

That when people heard about this, they wanted to help — and actually did. I was especially surprised by the kids’ reactions. I didn’t think there would be kids actually going home and thinking about it and telling me how great it was. One friend of mine decided he wanted to do the same thing because he was really inspired by what I did. And some adults have written notes to me, thanking me.

What would your advice be to other kids who are having Bar or Bat Mitzvahs and who are thinking they don’t need to do anything or are thinking of just giving part of their money to a charity?

I would tell them it means a lot more when you actually give the effort. You feel a lot more accomplished when you spend months trying to get it all together and then at the end come out of it with something greater than if you just wrote a check.

For more information about Lou’s project, or to help out and make a donation, please email amy@stylesubstancesoul.com.

tags: ethiopia, making the crooked straight, rick hodes, spinal tuberculosis, sue cohn rockefeller

This entry was posted Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 5:01 am and is filed under soul, women of StyleSubstanceSoul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.