I was just doing a little research on children without mommies and daddies, and was staggered by what I read (assuming the sources are reliable, which they appear to be):
- Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa. (1)
- Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans.
- Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone).
- 143,000,000 (2) Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years (3) in an orphanage or foster home .
- Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…
- Every YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT (4) of the system.
- Every DAY 38,493 children AGE OUT.
- Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home.
1. http://www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk/current_appeal.htm.
2. According to figures from the United Nations. These statistics include children in the American Foster Care system.
3. This is an estimate. Infants may stay as long as 18 years while children who become orphans at an older age stay a shorter time.
4. To AGE OUT means to grow to the age where a child is forced to leave the orphanage or foster home with no place to call home.
I also just recently read that over 4,000 children are now orphaned in Sichuan Province from the earthquake in Chengdu, China.
This blows me away!
Tom
"Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the LORD, and exult before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity," Psalm 68:4-6
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