First, if you haven't read her post you need to do it immediately! It is very good and necessary for anyone who is involved in orphan care or for someone who is even thinking about taking a step in that direction.
At Hope Remembered we agree that all efforts should be made to keep a child out of an orphanage if at all possible. Family care should be and is our first priority. A child should never have to live in an institution just because their family is too poor to care for them. Building an orphanage is not a solution to fix poor communities. Something that really stuck with me from Kristin's post is
third world children do not deserve to be raised in a setting that we would never apporve of for our own kids.Let me tell you something. Those words really hit home to me. I would be desperate to get my children out of any orphanage. Our youngest daughter was at an orphanage where she was loved, regularly bathed, taken care of medically, fed on a regular schedule, taken out of her crib during the day, and prayed over but I still was desperate to get her home. Even a good orphanage cannot replace even a fraction of what is provided in a loving home. It is so much more than food, shelter, and clothing. A child needs a parent; not a set of caregivers that rotate in and out on a daily basis.
I did see children at our orphanage that were poverty orphans. Our daughter is a poverty orphan. Her birthfather is alive. Here is the difference though in Guinea Bissau. Poverty is not the only thing keeping these fathers from raising their children. Their religion and witchcraft beliefs tell them that a child who is a twin or a child who's mother dies in child birth is a curse. They are afraid to keep this child in their village because then they will become cursed. Guinea Bissau has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world. There is little to no access to medical care and certainly no pre-natal care. These factors produce lots of children with no mother.
While we were visiting in a village a father came up to us begging us to take his daughter to the orphanage to live. Why? The child's mother and father are both alive. They love her and are doing the best they can. Because they are living in desperate and extreme poverty. I looked into the eyes of a child who was starving to death, has no access to basic medical care, has no access to clean water, no access to an education as all public schools are non functioning in Guinea Bissau and there is no money for private school.
How can we live like we do when there are millions of families who live like this?
Sharing many similar stories like this one prompted our oldest son to donate his birthday to dig a well in the village where this girl lives. That project was the birth of Hope Remembered. A little girl shouldn't be thirsty when we can do something about it. We provided enough food for this family to last a couple of months but that was a year ago. How is she doing now? God provided enough money for us to also finish construction on a school for a similar village in GB. We received word by email yesterday that the children of Pravis who last year had no hope of an education are in fact attending school.
Our main goal is not to slap up a shiny new orphanage and entice the nearby villages to drop their kids off for an education and three meals a day. The actual construction of the orphanage is a projected 5 year goal. We are working with the missionaries on the ground in GB now on orphan prevention. Here is our question.
What can we be doing NOW to alleviate the orphan crisis by keeping more children with their family?
What villages in the southern region would benefit from a well, a school, a livestock program, a mobile medical clinic? What can we provide now that will keep children at home? Once we know the needs, what is the best way to meet those needs? How do we build up a community so that it functions in such a way that an orphanage is not in high demand? How do we work in these communities long term and not just throw some aid at them and hope for the best? How do we change the belief that children are born cursed and it is accepted and encouraged to kill them? How do we reach them with the Good News and Hope of the Gospel so we are changing their lives for eternity? These are all questions that must be considered thoughtfully.
We are very fortunate to be working with an orphanage that really understands the people, government structure, and dynamics of Guinea Bissau. The director has been in GB since the 80's and is well liked throughout GB. The new orphanage will be modeled after this orphanage in the capital. The orphanage has a school that is available to all the surrounding children, not just the children inside the orphanage walls. There is a medical and dental hospital, by far the nicest facility in Guinea Bissau. It is available to any who come to their doors. The orphanage also provides mobile medical clinics because they understand many in the country could never travel to the capital city. The orphanage has a separate home established for older boys. Here they learn different trades, continue with high school, learn how to farm pigs and garden, and how to take care of themselves and their home. We witnessed them first hand turning away a family who's child was not truly an orphan. The orphanage actively seeks the adoption of children though most are not eligible for adoption. Islam is a main religion in GB so they do not consent for children to be adopted to the United States or to a Christian home.
So there you have it. Our heart for orphan prevention and orphan care. We understand that family care is best and that is our heart. We also understand that beliefs passed down from generation to generation are not easily broken and an orphanage is necessary to care for the children labeled as cursed and those who are truly orphaned due to disease, death, and abandonment.
We would love to hear from you! What are your thoughts on orphan care, reaching the least of these, community involvement in third world countries, reaching those in desperate need of Hope?
If you are interested in learning more about our projects, or would like us to speak to your group on orphan care, adoption, or missions we would LOVE to! Leave a comment or email us and we would be happy to do so.
May we daily strive to live as we have been commanded:
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:6
John answered, ‘the man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same. Luke 3:11
