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The Plight of the Orphan

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Before we can really explore ways to help orphans, we must understand a little bit about their plight in our world today.

(Info from www.cryoftheorphan.org)

Many orphans and waiting children worldwide have lost their parents due to armed conflict or disease, such as AIDS. In some countries, however, children are increasingly abandoned at alarming rates due to poverty, restrictive population control policies, disabilities or perceived disabilities, and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls.

Global Orphans

• Over 140 million orphans and waiting children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents.ⁱ
• Over 13 million "double orphans" (have lost both parents) under the age of 18.ⁱⁱ
• Sub-Saharan Africa, with 48.3 million orphans, has the highest proportion of children who are orphans at 12%
  • Asia has the largest total number of orphans with 73.7 million orphans, which represents 6% of all children
  • Latin America and the Caribbean has 10.7 million orphans, also representing 6% of all children.ⁱⁱⁱ
• Over 15 million children have lost a parent due to AIDS, and that number is expected to rise to over 20 million by 2010.^iv
• Without AIDS, the total number of double orphans in sub-Saharan Africa would have declined between 1990 and 2010. AIDS, however, will push the number of double orphans in the region from 9 million to more than 10 million by 2010.^v
• Orphaned children are much more likely than non-orphans to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and in the sex trade.^vi
• Orphans are more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination, or other abuses.^vii

Domestic Orphans

• More than 500,000 children are in United States foster care.^viii
• Over 120,000 children in foster care are waiting to be adopted.^ix
• Only around 50,000 children, or 18% of those waiting in foster care, are adopted every year.^x
• On average, children in foster care wait over 2 years to be adopted.^xi

Adoption

• More than one-third of Americans have seriously considered adopting, but no more than 2 percent have actually adopted.^xii
• Only 4 percent of families with children (1.7 million households) contain adopted children.
• Between 118,000 and 127,000 children have been adopted in the United States every year since 1987. Of these adoptions, approximately 20,000 are international, 50,000 are from foster care, 25,000 are domestic agency adoptions, and 25,000 are private, independent adoptions. 

Remember, these numbers represent children. Sons and daughters. Children that need care and children that need parents. Each of us can do something to make a difference in their lives. For some it will be visiting them with aid, for others it will be reducing the number of double orphans through adoption, one, two, three at a time!

View the sources for these statistics

Things to consider are:

1.) The UNICEF orphan numbers (145 million) are only for deceased parents. If you were to factor in single parents in general, we'd be talking a number many times higher.

2.) The majority of these children are in countries with inadequate social services/support. An ostracized/disenfranchised widow in Kenya has very little hope of feeding and educating her children, compared to a single mother living in the projects of Baltimore.

3.) Many of these remaining parents of "single orphans" are themselves suffering from the same ailments (or under the same death sentence) that took their spouses. They are incapacitated.

4.) Many of these remaining parents of "single orphans" have to work 12 to 18 hour days to survive, thereby leaving kids to roam streets or raise themselves.

5.) UNICEF/WHO estimate 100 million street children (either abandoned, runaways, market kids, or effectively left to their own devices by parents). Some organizations state that that number is closer to 150 million to 200 million. It's clear that many of the "single orphans" fall into this category, based on the circumstances above and related circumstances. They may have a surviving parent, but they're essentially on their own.

6.) The UNICEF orphan numbers DON'T include abandonment (millions of children) as well as sold and/or trafficked children. Are the millions of kids abandoned in China not orphans?

7.) The UNICEF orphan numbers DON'T include many non-reporting nations (namely, Middle Eastern Islamic nations) where shame and divorce abandonment are rampant. 200,000 + orphans in Iraq, for instance, are not part of the count.

8.) In many cultures we work in, the children taken in by extended family are denied education and are used as domestic servants or, worse, abused. Sure, they're "in a family," but they have no hope, no dignity.

9.) In many other countries, children are institutionalized. Yes, they're in "care," but are also ill-prepared to integrate into society and are often in abusive and vulnerable situations themselves.

Given the above, I think we're looking at a number quite higher than 15 million "double orphans." We often communicate that the real number of kids that fall into our care categories is somewhere around 40 or 50 million.

- Paul Myhill, president of World Orphans