Abandoned-Orphaned

The Sum of the Parts

...In part, a portal that whisks you to exotic worlds and immerses you into the real cultures behind the curtains – the byways of life and the gritty existence of people struggling to survive against pitiful odds. Along the journey, children are found left in the wake, abandoned and orphaned by powers and principalities that seek to destroy them, to destroy communities and nations.

...In part, an exposition of the Biblical mandates of caution, judgment, justice, care and blessing regarding the "least of these." An intimate look at God’s truth and what it means for us today in the midst of millions upon millions of children that simply desire to be loved.

...In part, an acknowledgement and exploration of the mega-issues of our time and how they are all interrelated, interconnected – and addressed – through the rescue and care of parentless and discarded children. In short, a unified view of the greatest outreach opportunity of our time, an approach to shatter vicious cycles that ensnare humanity and to mobilize masses to attack the core issue of spiritual separation.

...In part, a plea to realize and engage the amazing front-line force that God has placed and mobilized for the most significant global task before us. A rebuke and encouragement to put aside personal motivations and to instead join the bride in all her radiance - to support her, cherish her and strengthen her – by "letting the little children come" to her.

...In part, a synergistic, synchronized framework of action to help bodies of believers - both near and far - to reach out in an organized holistic approach that will change the very course of history...by changing the children’s lives that will immediately and ultimately impact it.

...In part, a consideration that the One who became incarnate in poverty, thrust out immediately as a refugee, and adopted in love and obedience, would use such as these for the completion of the wondrous commission we have been given.

...In part, a treatise that puts forth the absurd idea that we, in affluence, need those, in physical and spiritual depravity, for our own sanctification...that the orphan, widow and stranger are indeed precious gifts to us.

The sum of the parts?

A literary adventure that I’m presently embarking on: a book that reflects upon my exposure to over two-hundred care contexts for the fatherless in over sixty developing-world nations; a book that draws upon lessons learned in leading a ministry that has helped to provide five hundred homes to orphaned and abandoned children; a book of transparent admission of the many mistakes along the way; a book to inform, engage and mobilize for the most powerful world evangelization and church growth strategy of our generation.

Stay tuned!

Continuum of Care (spheres of influence)

Since we first started percolating on the development of a child Continuum of Care model in Burundi last year, we’ve massaged the concept and communication quite extensively. What started out as a napkin illustration that went back and forth between Scott Vair and me (when faced with the reality of the disjointedness of non-profit organization solutions for at-risk children) has become a fully-developed representation of indigenous churches effectively employed in all facets and stages of the work.

Over the past few months we’ve had the opportunity to gauge the response to our model with various World Orphans’ stakeholders, and have also presented the model to major organizational partners to evaluate the effectiveness of the message with others in the missions community.

In addition, we’ve now been invited to share the continuum at Viva Network's Cutting Edge Conference this summer and have engaged a film crew to shoot visual elements of the continuum in various locations worldwide.

Our Continuum of Care paradigm certainly seems to be resonating with a lot of people, from organizational leaders and pastors to faithful ministry donors. The general feedback is that "It just makes plain good ol’ sense!"

The individual elements are nothing new of course. But putting them into perspective, within a framework that champions the church-centered response, is causing some "Eureka!" moments for many people involved in the rescue and care of orphans.

We’ve now boiled the Continuum of Care down into three circles of engagement, or "spheres of influence," for local indigenous churches currently engaged, or evaluating engagement, with orphaned and abandoned children.

These spheres include 1.) Orphan Prevention and Delay; 2.) Residential Care; and 3.) Self-Sustainability.

To be continued...

Continuum of Care (hand in hand)

An attention to the child continuum of care goes hand in hand with an attention to holism.

An indigenous church that is engaged in all aspects of the continuum is inherently taking a holistic approach that seeks the integrated physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being of the child.

Jonathon’s parents, David and Sarah, are dying of AIDS in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. A local church has been visiting them for months, providing antiretroviral drugs (ARV’s), other medications and meals, as well as school fees and tutoring sessions for eight year-old Jonathon. Various church volunteers help to bathe, feed and pray for the ailing family with regular visits each week. David and Sarah really look forward to the company since the members of the church are now the only people that come by to visit. Others in the community have long since stayed away, scared by the evil ‘stigma and spirits’ of HIV/AIDS.

David and Sarah’s fragile bodies were far too damaged during a prolonged period without access to ARV’s and proper care and nutrition. Their deaths are imminent.

The church is working to preserve family stories and memories for Jonathon. A book has been compiled with narratives on how David and Sarah met, fell in love and got married. Other pages chronicle broader family and clan history and give an account of their move from the village ten years ago. Additional entries tell of how Jonathon was given his name and of a younger sister that died when he was four years old. Jonathon’s young life is described in detail and his parents include letters to him, imparting blessings and giving him instructions for a life worthy of the family name and heritage. Interspersed between the pages are the few fading photos that the family possesses.

The book is placed into a keepsake box, along with what meager items the family treasures – a small wood carving of an elephant that Jonathon chose on a visit to the Rift Valley, his first t-shirt emblazoned with Tweety Bird, Sarah’s heart-shaped locket (the only piece of precious-metal jewelry she has ever owned), and the broken spectacles of their daughter who had also succumbed to the ravages of AIDS.

As a result of all their home visits, and the thorough process of establishing a memory book for Jonathon, the church has an intimate knowledge of his past and potential. They know his parents well; know their hopes and dreams for him.

Jonathon has no extended family in the slum. Relatives in their village of origin either scattered long ago or have no desire to welcome the son of AIDS victims into their families.

For Jonathon, the church’s family-style home is his only hope.

But he knows these people, has played with them, prayed with them. They are his friends. The family that is taking him in has visited his parents on many occasions and helped him with his homework. He is comfortable with them. He watched them nurture his parents. He will watch them give his parents a decent and dignified burial.

The pain will still be initially unbearable. But most of the deep and long psychological scars will be averted.

Jonathon will never have to wonder about who his parents were and struggle with being a person without a history, dropped off on the doorstep on an institutional orphanage.

He will be more whole.

...Because the church engaged him and his family at the entry point of the continuum of care.

Continuum of Care (enablement/intake)

Let’s face the facts. Many orphanages have been started with children that have existing or remaining family.

Part of a dinnertime conversation here in Burundi concerned this reality.

In Africa, there is a broad cultural acceptance of having other people raise your children for you. It’s not uncommon for a parent to ask a more well-to-do friend to take in their child so that child might have better opportunities in life. Some of this is related to the "it takes a village to raise a child" mindset and part of it is just based on pure economics, especially in situations of polygamous marriages where dozens of children are involved.

One of the organizational workers that joined us for dinner explained how a friend of hers was brought up in an orphanage. Family and extended family were either nowhere to be found or inadequate attempts were made to find them. The child was alone and subsequently raised by the institution. She beat the odds and ended up doing quite well for herself. She became a nurse. She married a doctor.

It was at that point that family came out of the woodwork and introduced themselves to her. Her new-found professional and economic success was, no doubt, a significant draw.

It was evident that she was being watched from afar. Family that didn’t want the responsibility of raising her were tracking her life’s developments, perhaps out of curiosity and love, perhaps for opportunities of future personal gain.

Yes, this child was indeed unwanted and abandoned for whatever reason. But could there have been better intake procedures to identify her true origins and the existence of family? Could there have been ministry opportunities into that shallow or overburdened family that could have changed the whole dynamic and situational analysis?

A major ministry once established and ran multiple orphanages in East Asia. The president of this ministry recently shared with us how they eventually had to make the decision to shut down the orphanages and follow a new ministry model that was not based on institutionalization. On the day the facilities were being closed, relatives literally lined up to pick up the children, pick up the ‘orphans.’

In India, we have visited many orphan homes where there were a large number of ‘needy’ children being housed with the orphans. Well, as you can imagine, many, if not most of the children of India could be classified as disadvantaged or needy. Where does one draw the line?

The line should be drawn at orphaned or endangerment status. Period.

Any type of group residential care program, regardless of whether it is an institutional orphanage or family-style home, should never, never, never (did I emphasize that enough?) enable families to give up their children for others to care for. That is simply unacceptable. The child needs to be with their family, even if that family is struggling greatly.

As with most things there are exceptions, of course. If the family is truly abandoning the child, selling the child, abusing the child, or planning to kill the child...those situations take special consideration. The child needs to be removed while that family is being ministered to. The goal would ultimately be reconciliation and reunification, brought about through the Gospel and much counseling.

But if the family just wants to have others take the burden of raising the child, or feels that others could do it better, that is simply not acceptable under any circumstance. That family should also be ministered to and supported. But their child should always remain with them.

Institutional orphanages are indeed part of the problem and actually help to perpetuate the problem. The very existence of an institution in a community can create orphans, create abandoned children. It’s too big of a temptation. It becomes an easy ‘drop-off’ point for families that are struggling to raise their children or want better opportunities for them. In addition, as those children grow up without healthy family role models, they end up abandoning their own children. Orphanages can create, perpetuate and increase the numbers of abandoned children over generations. They can destroy communities and nations.

Residential care should never enable abandonment!

Related to this, where there is a need for residential care, there’s usually gross problems regarding intake procedures.

Churches know the families and kids in their communities. They are much better positioned and equipped than the government, NGO’s, or established institutional orphanages to assess the needs of children and to know the specific situations concerning their status, abuse or abandonment. They know who the true orphans are. They minister to the dying families and know the children before they hit the streets. They know if extended family options exist or not. Their very work and involvement in the surrounding community is the intake assessment procedure!

Since the funding of institutional orphanages is often based on the number of children they care for, there is an inherent conflict of interest involved. Even above-the-board orphanage directors are less than motivated to make sure a child is a true orphan, and they are certainly not inclined to try to keep children in families or return the children to them. They need to keep the child numbers up in order to keep income up.

Yes, churches can abuse the system also, most notably when they receive funding for children from the West. Narrowly-focused, poorly-run child sponsorship programs create these potential problems where funding is directly related to the number of children involved. Such sponsorship programs should be left to the experts (i.e. Compassion International and other dedicated sponsorship ministries) who have significant, multi-tiered, in-field accountability structures.

Provided that poor sponsorship programs aren’t in the mix, the church is clearly the better assessment and intake mechanism because they are involved in activities spanning the full continuum of care, most notably orphaning prevention and delay programs. In addition, their heart is for the community they serve, not for filling up buildings with children. They take a more integrated approach that involves multiple options.

They don’t enable abandonment.

Continuum of Care (introduction)

I wrote the following entry, and a few that follow, at 4:00 AM as a storm rained down on a tin roof overlooking a courtyard in Bujumbura, Burundi last year. I’m not sure why it took me so long to post them, perhaps because they fall more into a ministry philosophy category than one of in-field reporting. Regardless, we have developed this model considerably further since I penned these initial thoughts based on our discussions. I look forward to sharing more with you on that later...

Continuum of Care (introduction)

True holistic or ‘whole’ ministry not only means providing for all the functional needs of the individual, but possessing all the potential solutions available for that individual. It entails having all the options at your disposal to meet the needs according to a ‘continuum of care.’ Where an individual’s needs and circumstances fall on that spectrum dictates the prospective approaches and solutions. For the potential orphan, it involves first trying to prevent orphaning, second, rescuing the child after orphaning.

More specifically, the rescue and care of abandoned and orphaned children should follow a progressive continuum of options that all involve the coordination and direct involvement of the local indigenous church located in the community.

PREVENTION/DELAY

Prevention involvement should primarily focus on keeping dying families or guardians alive for as long as possible, or by supporting high-risk struggling, impoverished, or single-parent families. In other words, the goal should be to avert orphaning and abandonment, or to at least significantly delay it.

Indigenous churches, as they engage their communities, conduct home care visits and provide much-needed medicines, food and other assistance for this purpose. Naturally, they also have significant additional ministry opportunities into these families as a result.

TRANSITION/RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT

If orphaning is still imminent, the church already has a history with and familiarity of these children due to its prevention and delay involvement. Requisite trust has been built with the families and the kids. The church prepares the family for death through counsel and practical programs that help to safeguard memories, family heritage and continuity. Meanwhile, the church looks to see what extended family options currently exist or helps to convince and support otherwise uncommitted relatives to step up and take in these children. Again, this provides further inlets for the church to reach and minister to families. The church is given witnessing avenues beyond just the interest in the children.

If these first two options don’t exist or have failed, then the church turns to its own congregation – first to see if church members can raise and care for the children as their own (adoption) or as an intermediate step until another family is found (foster care). The church therefore serves as an integral community-based solution.

If the church’s capacity has already reached its upper limits, then a church-based residential care solution is needed in order to keeps kids off of the streets, herded into institutions, preyed upon by traffickers, or being exploited as domestic slaves in other community homes.

Group residential care, however, still has to be designed to provide a family environment, albeit a large one of fifteen children or so. Church families, that may have existing kids of their own, are recruited to care for these additional children in church-based homes with full funding provided for food, clothing, education and other critical needs. It’s a long-term obligation - a lifelong commitment - to what, in essence, equates to a group adoption.

In these large family settings, widows can complement the live-in care provision. Formerly disenfranchised and ostracized, many of these ladies need a home themselves and a renewed sense of purpose and belonging. They know loss and pain and are therefore uniquely qualified to counsel and comfort children who have lost their parents.

Volunteers from the church body are also on hand to provide assistance, mentoring, and skills development for the children in the group home.

RESCUE

There exist many young children already struggling on the streets and in garbage dumps and brothels. The indigenous church still goes through the necessary steps to find and support extended families for their rescue. But, absent that, these children also need to be incorporated into families within homes overseen and run by the church.

TRANSITION/REHABILITATION

Many orphan care ministries speak in terms of ‘transition’ or ‘reintegration’ concerning children that age-out of the system. For the children in World Orphans’ church-based homes, these words carry less meaning. Under our current ministry model, our children remain fully integrated in their communities and daily experience what healthy families look like. There is no big disconnection between the environment of their upbringing and the next season of life in the ‘real world,’ only the normal anxieties typically associated with making it on your own.

What’s more, these children never graduate from a home, much like we would never graduate from our own families. The families are told that their care for the children is not a 5, 10 or 15-year commitment. It’s a 65-year commitment! These kids are now part of families, families that they will still visit; families that they will celebrate life’s achievements and milestones with; families that will gather together for reunions and holidays.

There are children we serve, however, that can be deemed as in need of transition. These are children in countries that raise their orphans in state institutions, or in countries where circumstances placed them into large privately-run orphanages. They also include latter-stage children that have been on the streets or rescued from other dire circumstances. These kids need comprehensive help through well-designed intervention programs that prepare them for the next stage of life.

In many cases, these children are immediately placed at the mercy of evil forces that prey upon them as soon as they are released from institutional care. If the church doesn’t step in at that point, the kids are soon immersed into a world of drugs, prostitution, slavery, or forced military conscription. Their lives are typically harsh...and short.

To avoid this highly-vulnerable period following institutional release, World Orphans is establishing transition homes, again owned and run by indigenous churches, that take in children before malevolent parties have a chance to grab them. This residential care format provides the necessary training (including social and skills development) to allow the children to better integrate into broader society at a later date.

SELF-SUSTAINABILITY

Whether it’s a child leaving a primary or transitional home, or directly aging out of an institutional orphanage, there is a further opportunity and responsibility for an indigenous church. Much like we would help our own children with ‘next steps’ resourcing and care, so is it with children from any type of residential care program. They need assistance to take the first strides of self sufficiency. That may come in the form of additional training or higher education, but can often mean a simple micro-loan to establish them in a trade, small business, or other income-generating scenario.

Why go this extra mile?

Because it could mean the difference between stopping or perpetuating the vicious cycle of orphaning and abandonment. It’s not just the specific child (now young adult) in question, but also their future offspring. The child needs to have every chance to be successful and self supporting so that they don’t, in turn, abandon children or fall to the ills that take and destroy lives after children are born.

Gas Chambers or Homes?

One of the presents that Caleb received for his Birthday this past January was an ant farm. The instructions called for sending in a postcard to receive a tube of ants by mail. "That’s silly," I said, "We’ve got plenty of ants that will infiltrate our garden come springtime."

For the past three months, Caleb has been patiently asking, "Is it springtime yet, daddy?"

The type of ants that tunnel and mound on our property are also the type that burrow into our trees, cutting off circulation and causing the death of limbs and branches. I love trees more than ants, so the action path is pretty clear to me. Pre-ban Diazinon crystals are my weapon of choice.

After stirring up the first spring ant nest this past weekend, I assembled a couple of Tupperware tubs to start catching those that would be saved and immersed into a world composed of nutrient-rich gel. These will be happy ants, I thought to myself. No more working for food. Their entire habitat will be edible!

I put the tubs into the refrigerator for fifteen minutes in order to slow down the six-legged creatures darting around therein. As these carpenter ants were cooling, I applied the Diazinon onto various areas of the garden, most notably around the trees that they like to consume. A blanket of death soon covered all of our prized planting areas and future shade tree grounds.

My role of exterminator finished, I took on the role of rescuer.

Having retrieved the now-lethargic ants from the refrigerator, I spread them, and the dirt that was scooped up with them, over our concrete front porch. With a bug vacuum in hand (another one of Caleb’s interesting past presents), I began to suck up a few dozen ants to release into their new home of wonder and plenty.

I felt good about myself. A remnant had been saved. They would be spoiled - free from the harsh acts of nature and man, and able to gorge themselves as they tunnel and thrive before our eyes. Lucky ants!

Almost immediately, there was an escape plan in motion. Ants formed a ladder and chosen ones scurried to the top to find potential exits. All activity was focused on finding freedom, not on exploiting the abundant food source below.

"Don’t these ants realize how good they’ve got it?" I said.

The buzz of motion started to slow. Ants started to drop...to die.

Soon all of them were on their backs in rapid death throes.

Huh?

I peered into their clear plastic world to try to figure out what was going on.

In the far corner, almost indiscernible to the naked eye, were two very small fragments...

...of Diazinon.

Presumably some errant particles had been blown onto my concrete porch before I freed the 'lucky ones' from their temporary Tupperware holding cells. Unseen, a couple of splinters of the deadly crystals journeyed into the ants’ new habitat.

What was supposed to be a new haven of peace and prosperity, became a gas chamber of agony...with all my kids looking on with saucer-wide eyes.

Certainly not recommended as a good parenting technique.

But so it is also with orphaned and abandoned children that are ‘rescued’ into typical institutional orphanages.

The bleakness of the environment causes the initial desire to escape. Imprisoned into a dismal place, the cracks and crevices are searched for opportunities to find freedom.

Oftentimes, with poorly-trained staff in painfully-low numbers, the Diazinon crystal dust gets overlooked. Intake procedures are poor. General care is poor. The poison gets in. Staff become exploiters. Abused kids become abusers. Addicted children find new substances and a captive audience to addict others. Bullies stake out their territory. Depression feeds on common traumas.

Many of these kids will leave these institutions without ever knowing the love of a family, without ever receiving personalized care and attention. After being raised in a poisonous environment, they then become the exterminator’s crystals placed into their society. They infect and destroy, causing the next cycle of orphans.

Herding kids by the hundreds into miserable concrete boxes with low caregiver ratios of inadequately-trained staff is not the solution!

Well-meaning supporters (‘rescuers’) of these institutions need to know that they are unintentionally setting up gas chambers; chambers that will eventually leak their poison into the broader community.

Family-style homes run by churches, on the other hand, have a naturally-good intake procedure – the church knows the kids of the community, knows the issues they are dealing with. Staff are live-in families that will become foster parents to the children. They are complemented by widows from the church, widows who understand trauma and loss and can counsel children accordingly. Additional church members are on hand with a plethora of skills and giftings to meet individual child requirements.

...And the whole environment is bathed in love and a desire for these children to know their Heavenly Father.

Your choice – gas chambers or homes?

World Orphans Weekly! - Eunice's Story

Meet Eunice.

She is a young girl living alone with her grandmother in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Her grandmother is living with HIV/AIDS. There are no other relatives to help. No neighbors with the capacity to care.

Who will care for Eunice and her grandmother in a community where thousands face these same challenges?

What will happen when Eunice’s grandmother passes away?

Will Eunice become another orphan statistic?

Who will care when others will not or cannot?

A Game of Thirds

After we rumbled down the dirt road and past the wooden houses on stilts at the shoreline, we came to an opening, a dock of sorts. There, we walked over deeply-cracked mud and boarded a longboat that would take us to the other side of the slow-moving Mekong.

Barges with homes built upon them were anchored close to the shore; just a few feet away from Cambodian soil, but a whole culture apart. Different language and customs. Common problems.

The motor’s rhythm was labored and irregular, but it was enough to propel us by this first cluster of refugees and illegal immigrants and across the dirty expanse to the opposite bank. There, we docked at a floating church that was running a school for children, many of them orphaned or abandoned.

Current estimates of the Vietnamese community in Cambodia range from 100,000 to over 2 million. Citizens of neither Cambodia nor Vietnam, many live on the lakes and rivers in flotillas, waterborne villages huddled together for protection and community.

We boarded the church where thirty or so children were diligently studying at rows of desks as part of a program funded by our hosts. The gentle rocking of the mobile vessel spoke of the villagers’ precarious position, caught in a land of prejudice, discrimination and persecution, but unwelcome back in the socialist land of their heritage lest they spark a counter-revolution.

To be Vietnamese in Cambodia, especially as one engaged in subsistence life on the lake or river, is to be a ‘yuon,’ a person regarded by most Cambodians as ‘lower than scum.’ Widely resented, these poor fishermen are frequent targets of political power plays and hate crimes. Various purges and sporadic attacks have brought death to them and their families, including the massacre of children in a floating video game parlor. Viewed as intruders, stealers of fish, and polluters of waterways, they are unwelcome guests in a culture where many seek to eradicate or expel them.

Lack of citizenship privileges, restricted access to basic education, social exclusion, illiteracy, limited trade skill opportunities, strong obligations to paying family debt, and extreme poverty all work together to attract the wolves. It’s no wonder that the children of these displaced Vietnamese communities are constantly preyed upon by traffickers.

The net result is a horrible game of thirds...

Over one-third of the 60,000 to 100,000 full and part-time prostitutes in Cambodia are under 18 and most are Vietnamese girls, many stolen or hoaxed into sexual slavery. The impoverished Vietnamese boat people are so desperate for income that one third of the families have willingly sold a child to sex traffickers in order to survive. Another one third has seriously considered doing so.

I scanned the children in rows before me and looked at every third child.

How many of them might be sold?

If not for this church-based education program, how many of them would already be in brothels by now?

Approach and Tools

A couple of weeks ago, I joined the Board of Directors for IllumAlliance (please click the link to learn more about this wonderful humanitarian organization and to see the appointment announcement.)

While I was in Iraq, IllumAlliance’s President, Robert Cipriano, asked me to respond to a question that he posed on his Facebook Profile.

As a follow-on to the question, "What does it take to get involved with crisis children?" Robert asked:

"With an ever shrinking world brought together by social networks like Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace, what can we as captains of this new voyage do to minimize poverty, homelessness and abuse and maximize our impact?"

The answer had to be limited to 255 characters. Well, as anybody who knows me, and anybody subscribed this blog (upper right-hand corner), can attest...I can’t keep anything under 1,000 characters, let alone 300.

I’ve therefore posted my – still brief by my standards – response here for the benefit of the IllumAlliance folks and my own abandoned-orphaned subscribers.

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Well, Rob, I’ll tie both questions together.

It’s a multifaceted issue, requiring both a top-down and bottom-up approach as well as macro and micro engagements. It’s too complex to really get into much detail here, but...

The major issues that affect the children (including the causes and symptoms you mention: poverty, homelessness and abuse) have to be tackled in part at the governmental and international community levels, yes. But ultimately everything ties back to fallen human nature and the multitudes of iniquities inherent therein. Reconciliation to our original design and nature is truly the only all-encompassing resolution. After all, everything that plagues the children can be traced back to the sinful character, intentions, actions and outcomes of mankind.

Having said that, to attack the greater societal issues from the top-down using secular approaches (but driven by the Love that guides us), we have to put pressure on nations and international oversight bodies. The issues have to be continually brought to the surface and our voices must be heard through the clutter.

The new medium of connectivity and voice is indeed the Internet. Blogs, social networking sites, and streaming/reporting technologies are truly a ‘viral’ way of raising awareness and mobilizing masses to action – to solicit political parties, nations and their broader associations to change.

From the bottom-up, ‘grassroots,’ angle, it’s simply the rescue of ‘one child at a time,’ knowing that each child rescued is not only a child taken out of the statistics, but also a child who becomes an advocate for change herself. It’s a geometric impact.

When you consider the interconnectivity and cause-effect cycle of the issues, it becomes clear that you just have to reach in and break the chain at the most opportune point.

For example, HIV/AIDS causes orphans who, in turn, are raped, trafficked to brothels, or engage in prostitution to survive. They become the next breeding ground of HIV/AIDS. One can help to tackle the behemoth problem of HIV/AIDS by therefore rescuing an orphan. It’s a practical, tangible, measureable approach to fighting the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

You can look at other related vicious circles also. Terrorism causes orphans who are then recruited or stolen into terrorist camps; Prostitution causes abandoned children who then become prostitutes; Child soldiers cause orphans who are then snatched up to be child soldiers; Poverty causes discarded children who grow up impoverished, etc. By attacking one link in the chain – in this case, orphans – you break the cycle. Given the huge composite issues involved, I would also argue that this is the easiest and most practical link to break.

This, of course, is what I’m involved in personally at World Orphans. According to the United Nations, there are 143 million orphans (semi and full) in the world. There are hundreds of thousands of churches (across all denominations and styles) set in their midst. A very practical, cost-effective strategy, therefore, is to partner with these churches to simply rescue and care for the orphans in their immediate community- even preventing orphaning and abandonment in the first place. This involves the resourcing and training of these churches.

If we can get each church to rescue each child, we will see each community transformed. We will see nations transformed.

This is doable. This has results. It’s not a highbrow, straw-man proposition built on just theory and conjecture.

For a deeper perspective on this, please review my blog posts, the Mega-Issue and Home Placement.

Now as far as awareness for all of this is concerned, the present tools are the same as for the top-down strategy – the electronic media options of our time. Direct mail doesn’t work. Advertising doesn’t work. Organizational booths at thinly-attended conferences don’t work.

Just as we rescue a child who then impacts communities as those communities see the transformation of the child, and just as that child acts as a direct advocate for change, so must we also approach the exposure/awareness/mobilization task in the same multiplicative way. We need champions who can infect the cyber world with the message. We need tools that immediately broadcast the issues to people who can be advocates, who can solicit and enlist others to get involved.

We all have our part, Rob. You are a workhorse that does so much for this effort in so many areas. But I’m especially excited by the more effective IT tools and broadcast options you are bringing online to enhance the roles that we each have to play.

Thank you for that!

From personal experience on the whole social networking, blogging thing...

I’ve only been a member of Facebook for three months, but have almost 1,800 folks in my network that are enquiring everyday about general volunteer opportunities, participating in short-term trips to orphan homes, contributing to the work, advocating on behalf of the children to their social networks, engaging in intern roles, etc. In addition, over just a span of a few weeks, we have over 1,000 members in our sponsored, "A Heart for Missions" group. We have also just gotten started on the "Fight Campaign" group that specifically looks at breaking the chains mentioned above.

Likewise, the abandoned-orphaned blog here has only been up for a year but has hundreds of subscribers and almost 1,000 people faithfully visiting it each day. Wherever I go to speak at or attend conferences and seminars, organizational leaders and attendees approach me and tell me how they use the blog as a significant source of info on orphans and abandoned children. This has resulted in new network partners, new donors, new people approaching us to join the team.

I don’t say all this to toot my own horn. To the contrary, this has happened with very little human effort on my part. It’s just indicative of the reality that people have a heart to connect, learn, and make an impact. And it’s evidence that God will use such vehicles to spread the message.

The tools are there...and you’re adding to that toolset, Rob.

We just have to utilize them in a concerted effort for change, coupled with sensible, realistic avenues of involvement.

World Orphans Weekly! - Birth and Renewal

Dear Friend of the Fatherless,

The holiday season from Christmas to New Years brings about thoughts of birth and renewal. We reflect upon the new covenant, plus look ahead to the changes and promises that the next twelve months might offer.

The time is punctuated with resolutions and hope. For many of us, that means drastic changes or commitments. For some of us, it means picking our lives and spirits up from the rubble of circumstances and tragedies that temporarily got the best of us.

In that vein, I’d like to share some reflections that I’ve had over this season.

The first set refers to the third anniversary of the South Asian Tsunami. I’d like to introduce you to one child and show you how one of our church-based homes stood ready to not only take him in, but expand to give other orphaned children hope for a new future.

The second set is more personal. It shares further on the progress of my dear friends, the Ochoa family. David and Rhonda Ochoa lost their daughter, Talitha, to cerebral malaria earlier this year while serving children’s ministries in Uganda. They now have a new baby and have moved to Colorado to join World Orphans. It’s certainly a time of new birth and new purpose for them. I think their story will serve as a good example and inspiration to you.

The third set gives you a pictorial update on the opening of the World Orphans’ Iraq office. This serves as yet another illustration of fantastic new beginnings filled with great hope and possibility. Please rejoice with us as we pioneer the work for orphans in this conflict-torn country...giving them new families, new legacies.

THREE YEARS LATER

Part One – Death on the shores; Hope across the street

Part Two – Fire and water, one boy becomes a full orphan

Part Three – A new home and a new future

PERSEVERANCE & FAITHFULNESS

Part One – A time of healing and transition

Part Two – Of Christmas delayed

Part Three – Words of wisdom born by pain

WORLD ORPHANS IN IRAQ

Spirit of 1776 – Now tangible: A new hope for Iraq’s orphans

More from Iraq – A trinity of languages to introduce The Trinity of love

From all of us here at World Orphans, we wish you a very blessed 2008, filled with new purpose and promise.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Until They All Have Homes,

Paul Myhill
President/CEO

World Orphans
1840 Woodmoor Dr., Suite 100
Monument, CO 80132
1-888-ORPHANS
719-487-1700
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