A New Orphan Every 15 Seconds

When we started the World Orphan Fund about 10 months ago it was a leap of faith. We've funded half of the cost to build a toddler house at Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras and have a strong following on our Facebook page. It's a good start, and in the coming weeks we will launch our website and a newsletter. It's been wonderful to hear the stories of so many who have already been helping and from others we've inspired to get involved for the first time.

We know we're one of hundreds of groups working to support support these children, and we shamelessly promote good causes when we find them. I was surprised early on when I got a note from a charity with a similar name to ours asking that we consider calling ourselves something different. The concern was that we might be confused with them. My response was that there is a great need for what we are doing in the world and I pray that both of our organizations reach as many these children as possible.

Honestly, whether you join with us, or another worthy charity, please just get involved, because the reality that lead to our founding is heartbreaking. For example, according to Family Hope International, an organization that works to connect potential host families with Ukrainian orphans, there are more than 100,000 Ukrainian children under the age of 16 that either live on the streets or in an orphanage. Only 3 percent of those orphans will be adopted once they reach 9 years old and most orphans are released back onto the street, or “age-out” of an orphanage by 18. Of that total, 70 percent of the boys will serve time in prison and 60 percent of the girls become prostitutes. Ten percent of all Ukrainian orphans will commit suicide before the age of 18. I just can't stand idly by knowing that.

Worldwide it's an epidemic. Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa Every year 2,102,400 more children become orphans there alone.

143,000,000 Orphans spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home. That's a number equal to half the U.S. Population.

And while approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, EVERY YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and age out of the system. Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home.

At Orphanage Emmanuel, where we've focused our early efforts, the statistics are just as staggering. This week alone they received 63 new kids, expect 20 more in the next few days. That means a growth rate of more than 17% in just over a year. The Toddler house we helped pay for will help house some of these children and we look forward to seeing it in January. But along with housing, these 83 new children will need sponsors to both love them, and help pay for their needs. If you are interested in sponsoring a child at Emmanuel, please email me at rj@theworldorphanfund.org.

Also in January we will visit a new Orphanage, Rancho Santa Fe (RSF), to learn about how they care for over 500 orphans there. RSF is one of several orphanages in the Nuestros Pequenos Hermano's (NPH) network of orphanages that care for children in 9 Countries. We are very interested in their vocational training for the children and the success they appear to have in helping children into the general population once they age out.

In April we hope to visit smaller orphanages in Honduras, ones where our support can make the biggest difference. These are orphanages that are 10-15 years behind Emmanuel and Santa Fe.

In June the WOF hopes to sponsor it's first youth mission trip for younger adults (18-25), hopefully to Emmanuel. Our plan is to assemble a team from several congregations from Wisconsin in a effort to rapidly connect churches with both orphans and orphanages. Our goal is multi-layered. Create future mission teams out of each congregation, encourage church support of the orphans and orphanages, and strategically locate the churches near schools that the U.S. Government has approved for non-resident children. By doing so we increase our chances of finding host families for children we hope to bring to the U.S. to educate.

Have ideas, see a need or just want to get involved? Drop me an email at rj@theworldorphanfund.org.

A Thousand Individual Efforts

It's inspiring to see so many stories about individual efforts to help orphans. The stories are a constant reminder how each and every one of us can make a difference. It just takes that first step. We at the World Orphan Fund are developing a website that will allow caring people to see opportunties to help orphans -- and then take things in their own hands. But until then, below are three stories about people who have already done just that.

Cycling for a Liberian Orphanage

In Oregon, Clackamas Sheriff Craig Roberts and his son Ryan are cycling for an Orphanage in Liberia. When John Van Huizen, a retired Clackamas County deputy told the police benevolent association he needed a conduit for a fundraiser to help orphans in Liberia, they enthusiastically took on the project.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts and Son Ryan

"When John came back from a trip to Liberia, he was emotionally distraught by the plight of orphans in Liberia, where 300 children a day die,” from causes related to AIDS and physical abuse, Roberts said.

With the benevolent foundation’s help, an orphanage for 50 children was built and local volunteers visit frequently to help carry out its mission.

“Our goal now is to raise $22,000 to buy bunks, desks and furniture,” Roberts said, adding that the plight of the orphans “makes us feel fortunate for what we have.”

Starting an Orphanage in Uganda

Holly Pheni saw the African Children’s Choir perform in Casper, Wyoming in 2005, and answered their call for volunteers. Pheni toured with the choir for a year and chaperoned some of the singers back to Uganda. Instead of coming home, she worked for an orphanage.

There she found orphans, many with AIDS, often left to the streets or go to caregivers who’re too afraid to touch them. While there she met her husband and together they founded "Our Own Home" for orphans with AIDS.



Holly Pheni at "Our Own Home" Orphanage


In the four years the home has existed, only three children have died — two babies for whom help came too late and an older child who got leukemia.

Most of the residents are healthy and energetic. The only way you’d know they have a disease is that they take medication twice a day, Pheni said. They go to school, run around, play soccer and have fun in the tree-house William built. Proud of growing their own maize, they help make a cornmeal called posha.

“What happens is when kids come in, they usually have health problems,” Pheni said. “Then as they get on their medication and have a better living environment — especially love — they change. They get strong.”

 I'm Not to Cool To Beg

Carrien Blue says she used to try and be cool. She says it changed after meeting forty orphaned kids from Burma, holed up in a little house in the Thai jungle with their protector, a guy named Chala, who was feeding them as well as he could with what little he could make, working as hard as he could in a 3rd world country. You can't un-know that, says Blue.

Carrien Blue

In the years following Blue and her husband founded a non-profit called The Charis Project, came up with a plan for a self sustaining orphan care model, and started figuring out how to implement it. Now they're trying to raise enough money to build them.

Blue homeschools four kids and runs the charity from the kitchen counter. Now that's cool. Check out her story.

Queen Rania and the Al-Aman Fund

I came across the Al-Aman Fund for Orphans yesterday after reading the Arab Bank's announcement that it will sponsor  a years worth of vocational training for 50 orphans through the Jordanian fund.

Queen Rania of Jordan

The Al-Aman fund was started in 2003 by Queen Rania, and every orphan residing in Jordan, regardless of their religion or nationality is eligible to benefit. It provides educational scholarships, living expenses, counseling services, apprenticeship and employment assistance and health insurance.

Focusing on post-secondary education and vocational training for 18-21 year-old orphans is one that we at the World Orphan Fund have a very strong interest in. Until these children obtain marketable skills, there is little hope of ending the cycle that made them orphans in the first place.

As I followed link after link, I was amazed by Queen Rania's impressive history of advocating for Children beyond Jordan's borders.

In 2007 she was named UNICEF's first Eminent Advocate for Children. 

In 2008, she participated in YouTube's In My Name campaign and appeared alongside The Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am in the video, "End Poverty – Be the Generation," which urged world leaders to keep the promises they made in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit. 

So not only is she genuinely commited to children, she's cool.

In 2009 she became Honorary Global Chair of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), and is co-founder and global co-chair of the 1GOAL Education for All campaign to rally World Cup 2010 fans together during the world’s biggest single sporting event and call on world leaders to give 75 million children out of school an education.

Her efforts are nothing short of inspiring.

A New Toddler House in Honduras

I'm pleased to announce that the World Ophan Fund is helping build a new Toddler House at Orphanage Emmanuel (OE) in Guaimaca, Honduras. They will break ground in September or October.

Less than a year ago a dedicated team from Emmanuel brought about 70 new toddlers from an overcrowded orphange 6.5 hours away. My youngest sponsor child came from that Ophanage. He's a beautiful and happy boy, but he was clearly abused early in life and came with a host of issues from his tramautic first 3 years of life. Thank God there are loving places like Emmanuel for children like him.

The cost to build the house is $45,000 and it can house 70 kids. Can you imagine that? Some people in the U.S. spend that much for a car! 

The World Orphan Fund has committed $20,000 toward this project and OE has another $9,000 pledged. That leaves them $16,000 short and we at the World Orphan Fund are helping them find it.

If you'd like to donate to help build this house just click here. You can make a secure donation online and help make a difference in the lives of these wonderful children.

Orphan Becomes A Sensation

I had a disturbing conversation on the World Orphan Fund Facebook page with a woman who was complaining about Orphans. How about the World Birth Control Fund she asked? She said she was tired of hearing whiney appeals for funds over the past 25 years to help orphans created by irresponsible people.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I argued with her. I said that orphans are created by a myriad of causes-- cultural issues, poverty, war, HIV/AIDS, and yep sometimes irresponsibility. And while it is right to address the root problems, what remains are real kids who need our love and our help. They didn't create their situations. Adults did.

Choi Sung-Bong

I think God has a plan for each and every one of them. I stumbled across a story about Choi Sung-Bong, who was left in an orphanage at age 3. About two years later, he ran away from the center to escape from the physical abuse he suffered there. Though homeless, he managed to make a living for 10 years by selling chewing gum and energy drinks, and sleeping in stairwells or public toilets. Choi started dreaming of becoming a singer when he saw performances at night clubs while working.

A turning point in his life arrived when a warm-hearted woman persuaded him to continue studying and gave him the name "Ji-sung." At the time he could not remember his real name. With the help of a social welfare worker, Choi was able to find his original name, and he eventually entered Daejeon Arts high school.

Someone cared and took the time to make a difference in his life. It's something each and every one of us can do.

Choi recently appeared on the Televison show Korea's Got Talent. If you manage to hold back tears watching the clip below, you're a stronger person than me. The YouTube of this has nearly 10 million views.

12 Year-Old Raises $1,000 and Flys to Siberia

The story below appeared in the Salem (yep that Salem) Massachussetts News, and shows that no matter how old you are you can make a difference in the life of orphans. Bridget Ayers, age 12, contributed all of her birthday and Christmas money to an orphan fund. Then she raised an additional $1,000 and flew to Sibera to volunteer for two weeks at the orphanage.

Bridget Ayers

SALEM — In many ways, Bridget Ayers is a typical 12-year-old. She's in Girl Scouts, she loves reading, and she's excited to go to camp this summer.

But she has a passion that distinguishes her.

Last summer, she began reading a blog written by a Marblehead woman who adopted a daughter from Siberia and returns to the orphanage yearly to bring much-needed supplies, toys and clothing.
By Christmas, Bridget wanted more than anything to meet her, so her mother reached out, and they arranged a get-together around the new year. Bridget and her mother, Kim Ayers, met with Marblehead resident Keri Cahill at Brothers Deli in Salem.

"Bridget handed me a giant jar filled with coins," recalled Cahill, who is in the process of adopting a second child from the orphanage in Siberia.

"I brought all my Christmas and birthday money to donate to the fund of the little boy she's adopting," explained Bridget, who lives in Salem and attends Collins Middle School.

Cahill recalls that during the meeting, she was blown away by "such a passionate young girl." Bridget said she wanted to go to Russia someday, so Cahill invited her to join her on her next trip to Siberia — as long as it was OK with Bridget's parents and she could raise the money to go.

That was all Bridget needed to hear.

"I went home and started making sock puppets that I sold for $5," said Bridget, who sold the puppets at school and church — in all, raising the $1,000, plus donations, that she needed to buy her plane ticket.
Accompanied by her mother, Bridget set off with Cahill and her daughter, Nastia, for two weeks in late May/early June.

"She wanted to have a chance to meet the children she is so passionate about," said Kim Ayers, who owns the StreetSmart driving school in Salem with her husband, Jim. They also have a son, Brad, 10, who is a student at Horace Mann Lab School in Salem.

"Never underestimate the power of a little girl committed to an ideal," Cahill mused.

Harsh realities at Siberian orphanage

The group stayed in the city of Kemerovo and visited the orphanage several hours away in Prokopyevsk, which is in a polluted and impoverished coal-mining region, Kim Ayers said.

The area is plagued by alcoholism, drug addiction, sex trafficking and prostitution, all of which contribute to the high number of orphaned children, she said.

"There are 17 orphanages," she said.

Bridget and her mom brought seven duffel bags, weighing 450 pounds, that were filled with donations for the orphanage, including toys, clothing, soap, toothbrushes, stuffed animals, American Girl dolls and accessories.
Bridget instantly adored the children there, particularly a 7-year-old girl named Genya, whom she had seen in Cahill's photos before the trip.

Bridget and Genya

Kim Ayers said the children are crammed into 22 beds per room, and Bridget said the meager serving size of the meals was one of the things that struck her most.

"They share a bucket of rice, a bucket of condensed milk and a bucket of apples," Kim Ayers said.
"It was rattling," Bridget said. "It made me think about how much Americans eat."

These are things Cahill has grown accustomed to witnessing since she adopted her daughter in 2005.
"The medical care is nonexistent," Cahill said. "They're all sick. They all have giardia or other parasites.

They're all dehydrated."

During the two-week journey, they visited the orphanage twice, visited with Nastia's sister, and spent time with some Shakespeare students Cahill taught while she lived in Siberia for three months. (Cahill runs the Rebel Shakespeare Company on the North Shore.)

"There is so much poverty," Kim Ayers said. "I knew this stuff because I read about it, but I still wasn't prepared."

'Giving hope to the kids'

Bridget, who can be shy in person, is a talented writer, and she keeps a blog about her experiences, http://www.tomarchtoadifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/.

When she got home, she immediately missed all of the children she met in Siberia and was pained by the disparity between their lives and hers. She posted this entry on her blog on June 14:

"Have you ever heard the saying 'Home is where the heart is'? Its a lie. Siberia is where the heart is. In the filthy coal-mining region of Kemerovo. In the little, unknown town of Prokop'yvsk.

"... Most nights I've been waking up at about 3 or 4 a.m. I can't fall back to sleep. Why? Because when I look to my right, I see a window. Outside of the window is a car, so that I don't walk to school, two miles. When I look to my left, I see a bottle of water from the sink that doesn't have parasites in it. I see a closet full of shoes and clothes that fit. ... "

Back at her seventh-grade social studies classroom in Salem, Bridget's teacher Catherine Rosenzweig invited her to show the whole class a video and present a talk on her experiences.

Bridget says the most important part of her trip was "giving hope to the kids," and she's already plotting a way to get back to Siberia.

"I think about them every second of every day," Bridget said.

"I wish there were more people like her," Cahill said.

A 22 year-old Mother of 13

Katie Davis was homecoming queen in her hometown in Tennessee in 2007. Now 22, she's a foster mother to thirteen orphans aged 2-15 in Uganda and runs a nonprofit called Amazima Ministries. Amazima helps 400 children go to school, provides community health programs and feeds more than a thousand children five days a week.

Here is the National Public Radio story of her inspiring young life.

Four years ago, Katie Davis was homecoming queen at her high school in Brentwood, Tenn. She had a yellow convertible and planned to study nursing in college.

But those plans changed just a little. Today, she's in Uganda, sharing her home with 13 orphaned or abandoned girls, ages 2 to 15. Davis is the legal guardian or foster mother for all of them, and hopes to one day adopt them.

"I think that's definitely something that I was made for," said Davis, 22, a devout Christian who idolizes Mother Teresa. "God just designed me that way because he already knew that this is what the plan was for my life — even though I didn't."

Davis traveled to Uganda after her high school graduation in 2007, but saw it as a temporary move before starting college back in the United States.

She started teaching kindergarten at an orphanage in a small village near the town of Jinja. One night, in January 2008, a mud hut down the road from the orphanage collapsed on three small AIDS orphans during a rainstorm. One of the girls, Agnes, then 9 years old, was taken for medical treatment.

"I was in the hospital, and I asked Mommy whether if I can live with her, and she said, 'yes,' " Agnes recalled.

Davis couldn't find any living relatives willing to take any of the girls, and she refused to send them to an overcrowded orphanage.

"The workers are always changing," Davis said of the orphanages. "Even if you form a relationship with one of the aunties or mommas, or whatever they call them at the orphanage, that momma might leave."

Davis then rented a house to accommodate the three girls. Over the next 18 months, 10 more girls moved in. All had been abandoned or abused, or had watched their parents wither away from AIDS.

Davis has set up an organization that provides food, medication and school fees to Ugandan children.
The youngest girl, Patricia, now 2 years old, was literally given to Davis by an HIV-positive mother who had 11 other children.

"My first instinct is not, 'Oh, a baby — let me adopt it!' Because I think, best-case scenario, they're raised in Uganda by Ugandans," said Davis. "But knowing there is nowhere else for them to go, I don't find myself capable of sending them away."

Everyday Challenges

Getting those 13 girls to sit down at the breakfast table is just the first of many hurdles Davis faces daily.

On a recent day, after rounding up the kids, Davis sat at the head of the table in a gray tank top and plaid boxer shorts, with her long brown hair pulled into braided pigtails. The girls then began to pray in unison. "Dear Jesus, thank you for food ... "

Davis is well-known in Jinja, where she drives her family around town in a 13-passenger minivan. She can apply to formally adopt the girls after serving as their caregiver for three years.

But not everyone supports her.

By law, Davis is too young to adopt in Uganda, said child welfare officer Caroline Bankusha. The rules say an adoptive parent must be at least 25 years old, and at least 21 years older than the child being adopted.
Apart from the age issue, Bankusha also disapproved of Davis taking care of so many children.

"Unless the children are placed under a children's ministry or children's home, which she can start, otherwise it is really bad for someone to have more than five children," she said.

Bankusha conceded that there's a legal loophole that allows judges to make exceptions in the "best interests of the child."

Davis said she has done everything by the book and is the court-appointed caregiver for all of the girls.
The oldest girl, 15-year-old Prossy, says it's certainly in her best interest to stay with Davis.

"I feel like she's really my mother," Prossy said, "because she shows me love and I feel like, yes, this is my mom."

Launching A Nonprofit

Davis has also started a nonprofit organization called Amazima Ministries. With support from U.S. donors, Amazima helps 400 children go to school, provides community health programs and feeds more than a thousand children five days a week. Davis is the director, and the job supports her and her family.

As she washed her two youngest girls in the bathtub, David explained why she has taken on so much.
"People definitely ask me why so many? I don't know," she said. "These are the children that God brought to my door."

Even her own mother, Mary Pat Davis, had questions about what Davis was doing.

"A part of me thinks, gosh, is she giving a part of her life up at such a young age, taking on so much responsibility?" Mary Pat Davis said. "But my heart knows that she's so happy."

Mary Pat Davis now visits Uganda for a couple of months each year to help her daughter care for the Ugandan girls.

Katie Davis said she hopes to get married and have biological children someday. But right now, she has no plans to move back to the United States.

She did return briefly in the fall of 2008 and enrolled in nursing college, fulfilling a promise to her parents. But she quickly realized she missed the Ugandan kids too much. She dropped out and moved back.

"I can't imagine that I would ever be able to afford to raise this many children in America," she said. "We like our life, and we like our community."

At the end of another long day, Davis herded her girls off to bed and tucked them in, providing a glimpse of why she has stayed.

"I love you, Mom," said one of the girls.

"I love you too, babe," Davis said. "Tell your sisters night-night."