Take Heart: Let's Not Walk Alone

Death. Poverty. War. Disease

There is too much to say about how orphans come to be. One parent has HIV, the other gets it [1]. A mother has HIV, gives it to her child [2]. There is no cure, anti-retroviral treatment is inaccessible or limited [3]. Healthcare professionals are limited [4]. Hospitals close due to war, some robbed of their medical equipment, robbed of doctors and nurses [4]. They die. Armies recruit and kidnap children to become their soldiers, some forced to kill their own parents, others watch their parents murdered by their captors [5,6]. Children are drugged to help cope with their situation, to make them effective fighters by separating their actions from reality [6]. Orphans who survive long enough to have their own children have drug problems and are unable to care for them. Children see no other means for survival, for escape from starvation and so give themselves to sexual slavery, to armies, to people who take advantage of them [5,6]. People die, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves. The cycle continues.

Then there are the children who are born with mental or physical disabilities. The parents don’t know how to care for them and so give them up [7]. Sometimes the tragic reality is that the parents see the child as more of a burden rather than a joy, perhaps the family is too poor to afford having one parent stay at home to care for the child, or pay for a caregiver [7]. The child is abandoned.

Finding a solution for the orphan crisis is just as complex as the causes of the orphan. Orphanages opened by well-intentioned people provide love, care for physical needs when properly funded and staffed. However, that is usually not the case. While some orphans have lost both their parents, single-parent and financially burdened families see orphanages as opportunities for their children [7]. As much as they do no not want to be separated from their child, they sacrifice their relationship in hopes that their child can alter the future to one that does not consist of hunger. Although orphanages at first seem like a great solution, it actually causes more children to be orphaned (given up) and are less effective if not properly equipped (or overcrowded) [7]. What happens when a child gets too old to stay at the orphanage? Children who are separated from their nurturing mother or protective father while growing up miss out on learning how to have their own families and care for their own children [8]. If people who grew up with both parents face challenges when it comes to parenting, how much more difficult would it be for an orphan who has no example to follow?

And if the lack of physical provision for a child isn’t bad enough, what about the mental implications that comes with being orphaned? Where exactly, is a child supposed to find belonging when they are being tossed from one caregiver or institution to the next [8]? What should they be thinking when they have to make decisions that only adults should make, when they have to take care of their younger siblings, when they are forced to kill their own parents, when they have to sacrifice education for work that uses and abuses them, when they watch helplessly as their parents are taken by an illness that they may also have? Not only are they alone, they are vulnerable and have no healthy way to cope with the trauma they have experienced.

So what do we do now? If it is not enough to build an orphanage, to throw money, to donate clothing, if it is not good enough that everyone knows about this issue, what then, can we do? We can keep the orphan in his/her family by supporting the family. If their parents are both deceased then a relative can be encouraged to take them in. Relatives are still family, and offer physical care without neglecting other needs. The ratio of caregivers to children in a family is much more balanced than in an institution. On average per child, an orphanage costs about $2000/year to run vs. the $360/year for a family [World Orphans journey team handbook] . This (community-based care) is the wholistic approach that organizations like World Orphans see as a way to prevent orphans [9, 10]. Keep the child with his/her family. Don’t let their sense of belonging, familial love, and humanity be taken away from them. Although keeping a family united does not solve all the problems, it is a start. When the physical needs can be met without separating them from their families, the cycle of orphans can come to a stop.

The purpose of the people who go on these "journey trips" is to see first hand what is happening, to better understand the need and to meet the people in their suffering. Through these trips, not only are we informed and aware of the situation that these children face, but an opportunity to bridge the gap between us and them arises. The hope is that we will be able to form church to church partnerships between our churches and the churches we visit, so that we can help provide long term support for the children and their families. Through the church to church partnerships, local churches will be empowered to encourage family unity by providing for their physical, societal, and spiritual needs. As locals understand best the needs of their communities, the best thing foreigners who want to help can do is to support the local church.

As I promised in my last post, I have a breakdown of the costs for the trip for those interested in supporting me/my team (excess will go to other team members):

airfare $945
lodging and meals $453
translators $67
in-country transport $160
pre-field expenses to include: mobilization pkg, shipping, background check, trip insurance $145
ministry expense $120
admin fee 10% $110

If you want to support the trip, you can also give me any reading or sunglasses to bring with me to Haiti. My team will be collecting 200 of each as this is what the local church we are visiting has requested.

The trip I am going on is called Journey 117 and is inspired by the verse Isaiah 1:17 which says,
"Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow."

Thanks for reading!