"...All at once the numbers became real...and personal.
We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.
So when you and I hear staggering numbers and statistics about the poor and needy around us and around the world, we have a choice. We can switch the channels on our mega-TVs and continue our comfortable, untroubled, ordinary, churchgoing lives as if the global poor don't exist. We can let these numbers remain cold, distant, and almost imaginary. Or we can open our eyes and our lives to the realities that surround us and begin considering the faces that are represented by these numbers.
...These are the faces I see when I envision twenty-six thousand children dying today of starvation or preventable diseases.
As I see their faces, I realize that I have a choice. You and I both have a choice."
(Radical, by David Platt, pg. 139-140)
(Radical, by David Platt, pg. 139-140)
3 comments:
I'm reading the Platt book right now as well. So good. Very, very challenging and convicting.
I will have to get up to speed on this one, thanks for the recommendation!
One thing many people need to know about the staggering numbers is that they are often mis-explained.
The definition of "orphan" which is used around the world is the UNICEF definition. UNICEF defines an orphan as a child who has lost only ONE parent and still has one living parent left. Which makes sense. If there are, say 10 million orphans (under the definition people think of with no parents or living relatives) that means that for each orphan, there are two deceased parents....where have 20 million parents gone? Wouldn't that be cause for alarm that that many people suddenly vanished or died?
The fact is, many orphans do have living relatives that come visit them in orphanages often. Many children born with severe medical conditions or to impoverished families are placed in orphanages because the dependency programs to preserve their original families within their country of origin are non-existant. While some countries do not have the means of offering social welfare programs so that families can stay together (which is a change that needs to be made and these countries need help to offer help to their people) other countries have little insentive to offer social welfare programs because they use their orphanages to manage dependency. To some countries, it may be preferable to collect an adoption fee and be relieved of a dependant child than it is for them to spend money to offer support to needy families and health care to families with critically ill children.
In some countries, single motherhood is so shameful, a woman dare not raise her child and the child is placed in an orphanage. The United States, Canada, Austrailia (who just issued an official apology), Great Britian and other countries have had a similar era. Some countries are still stuck in their own version of it. This is something women everywhere can be empassioned about helping other women overcome.
I, like you, share a passion for impoverished children and families. I've been to very impoverished nations and have seen that need as well. I've learned a lot about how to help by listening to Adult Adoptees of international adoption--both those who were born American and were adopted out and those who were born elsewhere and adopted into America. Their blogs may be of valuable resource to you to read too. I was talking to my Adoptive Mother yesterday who is in a process of writing a book. She says that she wished she had a more well-rounded view of adoption (she had the agency's view and the view of other APs but had never heard from an adoptee or a surrendering parent) available to her before she adopted. Reading the thoughts of Adult Adoptees wasn't something ever suggested to her but she wished she had thought of it. So, it's something I suggest to everyone.
My favorite quote:
"Adult adoptees are a primary source for knowledge about adoption as an institution. Their perceptions are unique, for adult adoptees are actually the only persons who can tell us what it is like to live adoption in a society in which most people are not adopted." --Child Welfare League of America
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