DRAWLING GIRL SCOUTS ANSWER THE CALL.

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Author: Lewis, Peter

OUTSOURCING

DEBATING THE MERITS OF outsourcing jobs to India ranks, like, dead last on the agenda of the 23 energetic fourth-graders of Girl Scout Troop 1809 in Austin at their weekly meeting. They're way too busy making audio books to help teach Texas English to scores of Indian orphans--"untouchables," who are legally unavailable for adoption--as a way to prepare them for success in English-language call centers on the other side of the globe.

"We're starting a library," said Ashley May, one of the Troop 1809 scouts. "And we're helping them learn how to pronounce English good," another scout added eagerly.

The rise of outsourced call centers for customers of such multinational corporations as American Express, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup has created new job opportunities for tens of thousands of Indians who speak and read English. That gave Caroline Boudreaux, a former Fox TV sales executive, an idea: start a school to teach the orphans English--not the heavily accented Queen's English taught by Indian instructors but everyday English as spoken by kids their own age.

She founded the Miracle Foundation (www.miraclefoundation.org) in 2000, after a chance visit to the Sisha Sadan Orphanage in India's poorest state, Orissa. Besides seeking sponsors for the orphans, she enlisted the Girl Scouts to record their favorite books. "People say, Do you really think you're doing them a favor by teaching them a Texas drawl?" said Boudreaux. "And I say yes! We're actually teaching them to speak 'neutral' English, and that will allow them a competitive advantage in their careers."

Do you ever worry, this reporter asked the scouts, that you're helping train Indian workers who might someday in-source your jobs? "No!" several girls shouted. But one thoughtful scout, Sophia Mitre, proposed a possible solution: "They should work for more money," she said of the Indians, "because it's kind of not fair."

PHOTO (COLOR): Troop 1809 at work in Austin

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By Peter Lewis