She Sprinkles Fairy Dust

His volunteer work there with children won him recognition recently by CNN, which included the doctor among 18 finalists nominated as “heroes” by viewers from 80 countries.Drawing from a pool of 7,000 nominees, each of the finalists were featured over the past two weeks during a CNN broadcast. Winners were again featured on Thursday, Dec. 6, when the cable channel broadcast “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.”While Dr. Rick was omitted from the final CNN tribute, he receives a hero’s ranking among the children he helps every day. And he remains a powerful role model to Marla, a Laguna Beach resident that established the Ethiopian Family Fund in 2006 in part to help him.

A single dad of 53, Dr. Rick adopted five Ethiopian boys. He is a volunteer physician at the Mother Teresa Mission for the Destitute and Dying in Addis Ababa, where he started an oncology program and where he regularly treats children for cancer and other ailments. He also rents two houses for himself and his sons along with up to 15 other temporary houseguests, kids who live there temporarily while they await or recover from medical treatment. Their ailments include spinal irregularities caused by untreated scoliosis and spinal tuberculosis.

Inspired by her brother-in-law’s activities, Hodes planned a trip to Ethiopia last year to create a pictorial book about his work with children, with the intent of somehow using it as a fundraiser. She mentioned her plan to a friend, Melanie Robbins, who immediately wanted to participate. Robbins in turn enlisted her daughter, a photographer, and her daughter’s friend, who was studying film production. They decided to make a film of Dr. Rick’s activities for submission to the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, where Hodes spends summers.Before departing, Hodes and Robbins started the process of establishing the Ethiopian Family Fund. Their vague idea of its mission was to perhaps start a small orphanage for girls.Their two-week trip in October 2006 changed that. They realized they could help many more children and be more accountable by developing partnerships with established, successful organizations in Ethiopia, Hodes said.Hodes intends to submit EFF’s application this month for nonprofit status.

Besides providing support for Dr. Rick’s children, EFF also works with Desta Y.Meghoo Children’s Village Project, a home started by the eponymous Dr. Meghoo, one of EFF’s advisors. The village provides a refuge for children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and other tragedies. Currently about 110 children are registered there.Hodes is equally passionate about finding ways for U.S. children to connect with their peers in Ethiopia. “When we began EFF I knew that I wanted children in America to be involved, but I was not sure how,” she said. “However, when I watched my children play with their Ethiopian cousins and I saw the love they have for one another, I knew that it is personal connections that really change people.”

Before moving to Laguna 10 years ago from the Bay Area, Hodes, 50, who holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology, worked in the pediatric renal and liver transplant unit at UC San Francisco.She and husband Dan, Dr. Rick’s brother, have three children, Dean, 10, and twins Carly and Matthew, 8. “I could not have done this without their love and encouragement,” she said.Hodes fosters connections through EFF’s “Kids Helping Kids,” which supports projects such as an EFF logo design contest among students of Telluride Mountain School, a Beanie Baby drive by Seal Beach girl scouts, and collecting art supplies for Ethiopian kids donated by students of Costa Mesa’s Waldorf School.

In October, Hodes personally delivered the paper and pastels to 100 children in three different organizations in Addis Ababa, including the kids staying at Dr. Rick’s. She worked with them while they created holiday cards to take back and use as fundraising tools here.Along with the supplies, she also brought letters from the Waldorf students. Hodes and Robbins, EFF’s co-founders, used their own money to get things started. Most donations so far have come from friends and from their Kids Helping Kids projects.

Some children have asked their friends to consider cash donations for EFF in lieu of birthday gifts. Two little girls from Corte Madera, Calif., raised almost $1,200 for the Children’s Village at their fifth birthday party in this way. Another girl, Renee, a Waldorf School student from Laguna Niguel, raised $1,000 in the same manner. She asked Hodes to find a little girl in Ethiopia who really needed help. Hodes found such a girl, Zinamen, at Dr. Rick’s. Dr. Rick encountered Zinamen and her father, who were searching Addis Ababa for a physician who could correct his daughter’s twisted spine. Three doctors had already turned him away. Dr. Rick offered his home, where she is getting proper nourishment and schooling, building up her strength before undergoing surgery in Ghana.Renee’s birthday money will help fund Zinamen’s surgery. She also sent Zinamen a fairy dust necklace she made herself and a note, which Hodes delivered in October. “We are giving them a chance to really know another child from another, very different, part of the world,” Hodes said, “when we give children opportunities to help those less fortunate and they realize that one person can truly make a difference, this is what changes the world.”Hodes hopes to involve more parents and children, though she admits she is just learning the options to explore.Establishing EFF and working with children here and in Africa “has brought a new sense of purpose and joy into my life,” she said. To support EFF, click here to donate.