Queen Anne News
April 16, 2003

In an angel's hands; Betty Tisdale wants to take build a home for orphans in Afghanistan
By Dennis Wilken , Freelance Writer

 Tisdale -- who won't tell you her age, thank you -- just doesn't seem to slow down.
She is currently trying to raise money for the orphaned babies of Afghanistan, some of the human results of a recent war the United States has already pushed to media's back pages because of the Iraq conflict. Tisdale needs donations for an orphanage in Kabul. Tisdale would like to go there in August, but right now she's getting her sea legs back after returning from Vietnam just last week.
After returning to her Queen Anne home, she finds she's worried not solely about babies but also about Vietnamese friends whose travel business is off almost 70 percent because of the recent scare over Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Tisdale's group HALO (Helping and Loving Orphans) recently dedicated in memory of her "inspiration", Dr. Tom Dooley, a $34,000 building in Quang Ngai that will house 50 more orphans. Last year, HALO also built a nursery in Quang Ngai for $12,500.
In addition to four orphanages in Vietnam, including one in the central highlands to help the Montagnard villagers - fierce fighters and great allies of the U.S. forces during the Vietnam War who are, accordingly, not favored by the current regime - Tisdale and HALO are aiding orphans in Bogota, Columbia, and Urapan, Mexico.
Tisdale is probably best known for the 1975 baby-lift that brought 219 Vietnamese children to America in 1975. Among those youngsters were five lovely Vietnamese girls who Tisdale adopted and raised along with her ex-husband's five sons.
And she's been helping children since meeting Dr. Tom Dooley in 1961. All of that would seem like enough activity for Tisdale to rest on her laurels.
But it's not in her nature to stay put.
"People's hearts go out to babies. And it is always the woman and the babies who suffer (during war and in grinding poverty). I just feel I have to go over there and help the babies."
Tisdale doesn't speak of it unless asked, but the Pittsburgh native is still a practicing Catholic, and her faith is one of the driving forces in her life.
Despite seeing many of the world's horrors in the last 40 years, Betty seems to be a person who sees the glass as half-full, not half-empty.
She's currently enthusing about the team of doctors from Denver, Boston and Jacksonville who operated for free last month in Vietnam on children from one of HALO's orphanages.
"They just come in for one solid week; they don't go out and look at the country, they just operate. They do cleft palate surgery," Tisdale said. "And one child, seven months old now, was slashed by her father when she was two weeks old. They performed reconstructive eye surgery ... People lined up around the block waiting to see these doctors."
Tisdale's modest home in Queen Anne is filled with pictures of children she has known over the years.  The photos on the walls and in her endless scrapbooks attest to all the "little people" Tisdale has helped.
There's also a picture upstairs in her "Vietnamese room" of Shirley Jones, who portrayed Tisdale in the 1982 made-for-TV film "The Angel of An Lac."
But Tisdale doesn't really talk much about herself during an animated, almost two-hour conversation. Instead, she talks about the world's children, especially those HALO is trying to help.
Tisdale and HALO keep up the good work with donations, a point she returns to often.
"I give speeches (too, for a fee). People have been very generous and that hasn't changed despite the current world situation. People want to help babies. Just $1,500 will buy milk for an entire year (for babies in Vietnam). We're also providing lunches now at a school (in Vietnam) for children whose parents are on drugs or in jail."
Tisdale mentioned Vietnamese friends who drove more than 200 miles on bad roads to deliver diapers, for free of course, to a HALO-sponsored orphanage.
"It's not just us helping people. They are helping themselves, too. But so much is needed," Tisdale said.
She has also promised to help build vocational schools for the orphans in Vietnam. "So that they can support themselves (as adults)," she said.
But for the moment, Vietnam is sharing space on Tisdale's crowded plate with Kabul.
Is she afraid to go to Afghanistan, where more than 11,000 troops from around the world, including 8,000 Americans, are still battling the remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda forces?
"I really need to go. I have to find out what and where the needs are, and then come back and raise the money for them," Tisdale said.
 

 If you wish to help Tisdale and HALO help the babies of the world, or if you'd like Tisdale to speak to your group, she'd love you to call her at 282-7337 or check out her Web page at BettyTisdale@aol.com.

 Freelance writer Dennis Wilken lives in Queen Anne. He can be reached at qanews@nwlink.com.

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