World Aids Orphan Day!

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I have a great affinity for orphans. I find it sickening that people are happy to throw stones about the rights and wrongs of intercountry & trans-racial adoptions, when there are over 136 million children in the world who are orphans! Life for these children is grim, while I believe every single child deserves a forever family, I see people make statements about why we should “care for our own backyard first” and I think they really don’t get it.

These children face:

:: Life in an orphanage – this alone puts them at incredible risk of abuse, some orphanages practice lock in at night meaning a security guard or no one is left with the children for 8, 10, 12 hrs overnight. Can you imagine what happens to some of these children at night?

::The children don’t have access to basic medications like antibiotics, this means that they are much more likely to die from very simple common childhood illness’, become deaf due to recurrent ear infections, become delayed due to minor physical challenges which with physio therapy wouldn’t even be a challenge.

::The children are forced to leave when they become too old, this could be age 8, 10, 12 depending on the country – they don’t leave to go to loving families, it is a known fact that certain kinds of men are waiting for children when they leave the orphanages. Yet we do nothing, but if this is what awaited out 8, 10, 12 year olds, if they were kicked out of foster care, there would be public outrage. Yet we allow 8 year old children, sometimes even younger, to be kicked out of an orphanage with only the clothes on their backs and face a life (if you can call it that) of forced sex-working, rape, abuse, torture.

:: They often get no education, no services, no days spent at the park, what kind of childhood is that?

Number of AIDS Orphans from Worlds Aids Orphans Website

• There are over 15 million children orphaned by AIDS around the world.
• Well over 12 million AIDS orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa, alone.
• Experts believe that millions more orphans remain unaccounted for in India, China and Russia.
• At least 10 million more children will be orphans by AIDS by 2010.

I do not believe ANY child is less deserving of the basic things, no matter what their skin colour or country of birth. All children deserve a family and it would only take less than 1% of safe people to adopt to stop there being orphans in the world. Shocking really how much attention people will give swine flu, the economy, sports, celebrities – and yet the fact that thousands of babies die simply because they are living in an orphanage doesn’t even register as something that is newsworthy.

So what can we all do?

:: Sponsor a child/family – this is seriously so basic and yet changes the lives of families, prevents children having to live in an orphanage, gives families education, services, immunizations. For £18 (about $35) a month you can literally change lives. I honestly believe that the vast majority of people in the Western World can afford to sponsor a child. Check out World Vision and look at what you can cut out in order to give more! 

::Sponsor a child with HIV living in an orphanage – this will give them increased care, help provide medications, education, services, clothing and good quality caregivers.

:: Adopt – Yes it takes time, energy and resources. But so does maintaining a car and we all seem to see that as a pretty normal thing. No I’m not comparing adoption to having a car. What I am saying is that people will often say they can’t afford to adopt, yet they’ll spend £15,000 + on a car. We need to change how we view children & families. Children from all over the UK and all over the world need adopting. I don’t believe adoption should only be for those people who can’t have biological children, I believe adoption is a very good choice for building families for anyone with or without biological children, married or single, people who are 25 and people who are 45. Yes there are at times unique challenges, but you know there can also be unique challenges with biological children.  Yes trans-racial adoption may mean you family stands out more, but there is no evidence that those children don’t do just as well.

::Help someone else adopt – if you really feel that for some reason you can’t (although please challenge that view), then if you know someone else who is embarking on this journey, help them raise funds, contribute to their adoption needs, have a carboot sale and give them the earnings, get creative!

:: Prevent HIV – I honestly think we are in a ticking time bomb when it comes to HIV & AIDS. Today figures were released in the UK that we have more diagnosis in the last year than any other country in Western Europe. I’m amazed and very very saddened by the number of my friends who make very poor sexual health choices, people who should know better. I honestly don’t know what to say when friends  don’t use condoms and have to yet again have another AIDS test. People view these tests as a clean bill of health, but then make risky decisions again.

:: Challenge ignorance! I recently had someone say to me in a meeting that a child is better off in an orphanage and/or better off in care rather than being adopted. I could of just let the comment slide, but I decided that while I may never change his views, maybe someone else listening might think about the facts. So I presented a few facts that show how well children do when adopted (in a timely fashion) by adoptive parents who are educated about the challenges, what life is like for children in orphanages, what life is like for a child that has no family. I definitely didn’t change this mans view, but another person there told me that I really changed their view, that they hadn’t really thought about it before but how can a child succeed if they don’t have the most basic thing – a family?

:: Teach your children & family about adoption – one of the biggest challenges for adopted children is that other children often make statements like “my mummy told me that your mummy isn’t your real mummy”. How hurtful and unkind. We need to as a society begin to accept adoption as a valid norm, we need to make our children whether they are 2 or 22 understand that family is who loves each other, that adoption is a great way to build a family! We need to stop using unkind language (real, natural etc), teachers need to check their wording and be inclusive of all types of families and we need to examine whether our words could hurt. Here is a great sample of positive adoption language!

I’ll leave you with a comment by Hugh Jackman

“There are 130 million orphans in the world — who is looking after them? If you are a citizen of the world, on some level they are all our responsibility. And if you have got parents who want to adopt and there are children who need a home, it seems like a no-brainer.”

Finally I’ll end with this; today dear friends before you buy that coffee, moan about being in debt, do that grocery shop, look at new shoes “you need”, talk about retirement savings, fill up that car with petrol, think about what you could do today to make a difference in the life of a child. Think about sending a cheque for £10 or £20 or £30 to an organization like World Vision, consider sponsoring a child, discuss adoption. Because today, while you go about your normal day 6000 more children will be orphaned. 6000 more children will have no one to wipe their tears, no one to read to them, no one to love them that alone should spur you into action!

My new post is up at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op! I’d love if you added some of your ideas!