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Our guest is Brenda DesOrmeaux, President and founder of the DesOrmeaux Foundation.
The Desormeaux Foundation is dedicated to defending human life at all stages of development, born and unborn. This includes the infant in the womb, the elderly, the handicapped, the homeless, and all who are threatened by our present culture of death.
To fulfill its mission, the DesOrmeaux Foundation offers family planning counseling and services at its Women’s Center of Lafayette as well as housing for pregnant women at St. Marguerite D’Youville Maternity Home. All services are offered at no charge to participants. The foundation raises money through various avenues, including its thrift stores Baby & Me Boutique and Mimi’s Attic on Jefferson Street in Lafayette. It also offers teachings through its “Theology of the Body” presentations.
The Women’s Center of Lafayette on Jefferson Street offers alternative pregnancy counseling including family planning counseling, free pregnancy testing, free ultrasounds, and more. For information, call 337-289-9366.
Brenda is sincere and passionate about her mission to protect life at all stages. Her Catholic faith drives her to help others who most need it. She recounts how Mother Teresa was a catalyst for starting Lafayette’s Catholic-based Women’s Pregnancy Clinic after she wrote all the Bishops across the U. S. telling them to send girls to her Missionaries of Charity order in New York if they couldn’t institute their own women’s pregnancy centers.
Brenda implored our local diocese to open such a women’s center and she was told, “If you’re willing to fund it and run it, go ahead and do it.” She traveled to Chicago to study how it was done there and on November 1, 1999, under the umbrella of the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, she opened the Women’s Center of Lafayette. Since then, Brenda has taken over fundraising and operations under the DesOrmeaux Foundation and has instituted a total of five ministries serving our community. When asked how she manages the fundraising for such a Herculean effort, she says, “God always provides.” She has never worried about fundraising and it has always appeared when needed.
The St. Marguerite D’Youville home welcomes homeless pregnant women. Each resident is provided with a place for reflection and re-direction, with the average stay being six months. This refuge is offered at no cost. Currently with an increased demand for services, St. Marguerite D’Youville houses nine residents, up from six.
Funds are raised through a variety of donations and also by the operations of Mimi’s Attic Resale Store and Baby & Me Boutique located on Jefferson at Lamar Streets, near the Women’s Center.
We thank Brenda DesOrmeaux for her community and faith-filled service through the DesOrmeaux Foundation. Please visit https://desormeauxfoundation.org/ for more information.
