Estonian orphans

I have a process to pray for 29 countries throughout the month. This practice is in place for about 18 years now. Today is Estonia. Sveta and I were there this summer, but our mission was more of observing the country and praying for it. On a humorous note, we were praying for Estonia in one church and one of the "guards" told us we could not sit in the pews and had to move. I was too tired to respond so we moved. I think that the person did not want us blocking the view to the front of the church as many tourists were flowing through the church.

I found some information about Estonian orphans. I foind this from a children's right NGO called Humanium based in Switzerland.

In Estonia, the courts have the power to place children in state orphanages if they are deemed to be a victim of parental violence and are in real and immediate danger. The future prospects of these children however is grim. Each year, 1,200 additional children find themselves in this situation, with half of them being placed in foster families. These families however are not trained to receive abandoned children, as often their primary objective in fostering children is to receive money from the State.
In this country, there is no longer a distinction between mistreated children and orphans. Today, the majority of the youth living in orphanages do actually have parents, yet the parents often have problems with addictions, which has lead them to violence. These children, the majority of which are Russian-speakers, are scattered throughout the 35 administrative structures of the country. With very few being adopted, these children fall under the care of the local powers at the age of 11. It is exceptionally rare that they will return to live with their biological families.
These changes are destabilising for a child that has already been through traumatic experiences. Many, lacking a chance at proper integration, will become delinquents, turn to drugs or become alcoholics.

Genocide is still real today

Genocide is not a topic I like to write about. The attempted destruction of people groups is gruesome and I cannot fathom it. The world declared after WWII to not tolerate it and yet we allow it to happen around the world. According to Genocide Watch these countries are currently experiencing genocide: Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Myanmar, Northern Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Somalia. Also how many orphans are caused by these events? Sudan split relatively along Moslem and Christian areas and still conflict remains. The Christian population in Iraq has been almost eliminated through death or dispersion. After Sveta and I visited Auschwitz Concentration camp this past summer, the mentality of genocide is hard to grasp. We have the historical examples, yet people still hate enough to exterminate each other. So many children suffer trauma from this hatred.

An Unexpected Meeting in Kirov

An interesting story about an orphan in Kirov
Andrei graduated from Slobodskoy Orphanage in 2011, which is a Type 8 orphanage. He shared that he remembers all the times that Doug, his sponsor, would visit him at the orphanage-even after graduating-along with his brother, Dima. Andrei and Dima were placed in separate orphanages as children because they were different ages, but Andrei was incorrectly placed in a Type 8 orphanage. Type 8 orphanages are institutions for handicapped children with either mental and/or physical delays which can range from being flat-footed, cross-eyed, having a speech impediments, to being paralyzed.
The children of Type 8 orphanages have a physical label on their government identification card for being a “Type 8” which attaches a permanent social stigma that he or she is incapable of contributing to society, thus must attend specific technical schools and maintain entry-level jobs that do not offer opportunities for advancement.
Andrei shared that he completed Technical School #18 a few years ago. Even though Andrei passed all the classes, he was limited to only learning about construction. Teenagers who “graduate” from a Type 8 orphanage at age 16 are assigned to a technical school in his/her region to learn a trade. The trade can be construction, cooking, sewing, painting, for example. All of which are basic skills that place the teens on narrow paths of employment without much opportunity to advance. Andrey is committed to furthering his education and to have all the opportunities that the world has to offer. 

The rest of the story can be found at http://www.hopechest.org/an-unexpected-meeting-in-kirov/
 

Why orphans?

A good question. The world has so many problems. Why focus on orphans?
I got these thoughts from: https://www.worldorphans.org/why-orphans/

Imagine a world faced with catastrophic issues, such as extreme poverty, disease, starvation, human trafficking, and the exploitation of child soldiers. At the core of those issues is one common link—the orphan. Currently, there are over 150 million orphans in the world . . . abandoned, neglected, and vulnerable.
In a world inundated with hypocrisy, people are constantly looking for something pure and faultless. James 1:27 reminds us that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

World Children's Day in the search engines

I did a quick synopsis of major search engines. Google is blank; they seem to focus more on the birthdays of interesting people. Google news did not mention World Children's Day.

Bing had an article on the top; I was surprised and impressed. "The Children of the Earth monument at North Cape, Norway." to highlight World Children's Day

Yahoo came up blank. Other search engines do not have news or a spotlight of the day.

The United nations who sponsors the event had it on the main page, but I had to scroll down to find Universal Children's Day. And I learned November 19th is world toilet day. UNICEF calls it World Children's Day so not sure whether to use Universal or World. anyway the intention is good.

I did not think to check this on World Orphan's Day. Mondays are typically my busiest days of the week. And I wonder how November as suicide prevention month is faring. It would seem that January would be better as post holiday depression is the highest.

 

World Children's Day

Being so close to Thanksgiving, this day does not have much press. I took the quiz and failed with 6 of 10. I do believe spanking is health for young children. Seems the UN and researchers are biased against it.

World Children’s Day – 20 November

This is a day for children, by children, all over the world to help save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfil their potential.

https://www.unicef.org/

Refugee children smiling

The resilience of these children. They are Rohingyas in a Bengali refugee camp. According to UN estimated 25,000 of them were taken into human trafficking. Human trafficking is increasing world-wide and quite profitable.

Helping Ukrainian orphans

From Every Home for Christ

Our EHC team in Ukraine hands out decorative Christmas gift boxes, filled with gifts provided by local churches, to share the Gospel with Ukrainian families. These families are in dire need. The gift boxes give them the hope they are looking for in Jesus and an answer that no one else can provide. An astounding 50 percent of families who receive the gift boxes respond to the Gospel.

When this project began several years ago, our team created 30,000 of these gift boxes as part of a strategic campaign to spread awareness among Ukrainian Christians about 30,000 orphans in need of adoption. It worked. Today, more than 20,000 Ukrainian orphans are in the care of Christian families.

Thousands of families have received the Gospel, and thousands of orphans have found homes. God is moving in Ukraine!

Orphan theory epiphany

One of the things a person with a doctorate is supposed to do is research and write. I had been stuck for several years on how to approach the orphan problem. Then this week it came to me. I developed a model for researching orphans and built the schematic. In the academic world we develop theories. So I now have an orphan theory as a model for research. As I was working on the Project Management theory textbook, the model we developed for that text became an idea for this orphan theory. Now that I have the framework, it will keep me busy for the rest of my life. I have the objective articulated, now I have to set some goals. There are so many distractions to derail this important project. The main point is I have a clear objective and a framework to start and keep going.

Deep in Swaziland

An interesting story about an orphan in Swaziland. Jennifer captures it well with these words.
"Though discouragement happens as sponsorship takes a while to build up, we regret not always being able to annually travel as a team to visit the CarePoint, and we frequently feel as if we are not doing enough, we see God doing powerful things at Lesibovu."

Takitsi’s Story: Singing about Hope

http://www.hopechest.org/takitsis-story-singing-hope/

World Orphans Day -November 13th part 2

More brief history of orphans.

Later, in Medieval Europe, orphans were cared for by churches. By the early 1900s, a number of orphans in England had reached truly alarming proportions, not to mention the conditions in which the orphaned children lived, which were often appalling and abusive. Charles Dickens’ most famous novel, “Oliver Twist”, depicts perfectly the hardships orphaned children had to endure in orphanages. In modern times, researchers are almost unanimous in their claim that orphanages are the worst possible care option for children, as they do not receive the right amount of attention or physical contact to develop properly.
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-orphans-day/


I had not considered the history of orphans much. Families typically took in orphans until industrialization really gained momentum. The church did care for the orphans and advocated the orphanages to get the children off the streets. Much of the institutionalization of orphans took place in the United Kingdom as the problem grew larger and philanthropists invested in the buildings and infrastructure. In the US, we had the orphan train that ran for many decades from the mid 1850s. Finally western nations moved towards adoption and foster care.

The last statement is true according to my research, the orphanages cannot provide the needed development for the children.

World Orphans Day - November 13th

I guess I was "under a rock". I stumbled upon something new today. I was not aware of World Orphan Day on November 13th. And November 20th is World Children's Day.

I figured I would bring out some points on the history of orphans and the development of world orphan's day.

The history of orphans
The first people to officially care for orphaned children were the Romans, who opened the first orphanage in history in around 400 AD. Long before them, however, both Jewish and Athenian law required that orphans be supported until age 18. The great philosopher Plato once said, “Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men should have a fear of the loneliness of orphans and of the souls of their departed parents. A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is a guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan’s property as of his own or even more careful still.”

From World Orphan Day. https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-orphans-day/ 

1 million Rohingya refugees flee to Bangladesh

I have a friend in Bangladesh right now helping the refugees. She posted: "The Rohingya refugee crisis continues here in Bangladesh. Every day the camps are growing as more people seek Refuge from the Burmese army inflicting acts of genocide against them. I am thankful to be working with @medicalteams to help provide them with essential items to keep them healthy. They are a gentle and gracious people".

What is amazing is that the world sits back and lets one nation commit genocide and takes no action under the guise of sovereignty of nations. Reports show that 1 million Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh for refuge.  60% are children; that means there has to be a large percentage of orphans in that group.

This picture is quite sobering. It upsets me that evil can be so cruel and destructive. Something can be done. I definitely need to rethink how I can retool my life to help orphans.