Ashley Perez

Block 2
December 18, 2013
Orphan Awareness
400,000 children live without permanent families in the United States, over 120,000
orphans live in the United States, and more than 163 million exist in the entire world. What do
you feel when you hear these facts are stated? Do you feel pity? Compassion? Sadness? Or
maybe even anger? Dry your eyes though, because most orphans dont need that, they dont want
that. What these orphans need is our strength. Love, warmth, and help. They want us to support
them to have a better life, a brighter future. Is America not the land of opportunities? Well then
where are their opportunities? To take chances and opportunities, they need to have one
presented to them. Great people are the ones that will come to the aid of these children, these
orphans. Sadly many dont know about orphans, they arent aware of this problem. People need
to become informed of this problem. Providing orphan awareness is important because it can
better orphan behavior in society, improve economic status, and help hundreds of children
around the world.
Being an orphan isnt only hard because you dont have material things, like a home and
food. Its hard because there is no emotional and psychological stability. Many people overlook
the severe impact that being an orphan can have on a child. The immediate and traumatic
emotional vacuum of losing ones parents is amplified by those who would take advantage of
young children left parentless (Orphans). In Zimbabwe there is a myth that says if a man has
aids and sleeps with a virgin he can be cured, this causes many young, female orphans to be
raped (Orphans). People think that being an orphan is not having everyday needs, but its also

about not having the love, warmth, and care of a family. Many can only fend for themselves to a
certain point and a certain age. Every child no matter who they are needs a parent at a point in
their childhood. The bonding between a mother and her child is special and unique, very natural
in humans. Bonding in general is very important. Bonding with your parents, your spouse, your
kids, sometimes even your pets. Love also plays a huge role in humans. We need to give love and
receive it; its who we are as humans. We have a part of our brain specialized for the emotion of
love (Lust, Love, and the Brain). Someone with no love given to them by anybody might feel
rejected by society and the world. 15%-20% of all children show a developmental or behavioral
issue (The Impact of Early Orphanage Life on Development). While the surrounding
environment, following birth can affect a childs development and behavior, malnutrition,
neglect, and abuse can cause long-lasting effects. Mild difficulties can include attention,
language, or reading (The Impact of Early Orphanage Life on Development). Many orphans are
also more prone to violence. They have more trouble being able to control their emotions
positively. As orphans grow up, they can have a harder time being able to have a stable family.
They might not be able to show warmth, care, and love properly. We have to try to reach orphans
in time to let them accept warmth and care. Many orphans have the problem of freezing out all
their emotions because they are scared of getting hurt. They also set very low expectations for
the life they can have. They dont expect their selves to lead a normal life, be happy, and have a
family. Financial issues are also a big point that many orphans can have if they try to maintain a
family.
Money, money, money. Money is a huge, important term known and used all over the
globe. Some get killed for having too much of it, some kill to have at least a little bit of it.
Orphans dont have much luck money-wise. A lot of the orphans cant get a decent job because

25% of youth that age out of the orphan system dont have a high school diploma or G.E.D.
Orphans tend to fall in the lowest class of society. 27,000 children age out of the system every
year, which leaves them with little financial or emotional support. Underage minors represent
50% of people living in extreme poverty (Statistics, Facts and Figures: Orphans Worldwide).
Orphans aging out of the system encounter much more than just poverty. On average, in the
United States, children leaving the foster care system at age 18: 25% will be homeless, 56% will
be unemployed, 27% end up in jail, and 30% of females will experience early parenthood (Life
Expectancy of Orphans). Becoming a successful person when youre an orphan is very difficult.
There are so many hurdles and obstacles to overcome to be able to be successful, but it is
possible. Babe Ruth, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Faith Hill, Bill Clinton, and Jamie Foxx all
had obstacles to overcome. They were orphans who became very successful people. We need to
be able to believe in orphans, and help them believe in themselves. With a little bit of a shoulder
to lean on and a step up, an orphan can be anything just like every other person, they just have to
have determination and seize every opportunity available.
Support means a lot to orphans. Sadly, they dont give much support to the orphans. If
more people supported this cause, the orphans would get more opportunities to become greater
people. Some orphans with the great opportunity, came to be important and major people. If we
give orphans opportunities, we are giving them the chance to flourish and become a bigger
person. Many people dont know about the concept of orphans, how serious it is of an issue,
because it isnt talked about much. If there was more awareness we would be able to minimize
the problem. There would be fewer orphans. A child can become an orphan by many ways. One
easily preventable cause of orphans is unplanned pregnancy. Many think that unplanned
pregnancy means abortion or financial problems but it can also mean abandonment. Unprepared

mothers might put their child up for adoption thinking they will have a better life. What they
dont realize is that they might actually be making it worse. Children now dont have a
sustainable or a family. If the child hadnt been abandoned, their family would probably be
struggling, but at least they would have a family. By making your child an orphan, youre
making it more probable for their children to be orphans, thus creating even more orphans. More
need to be aware of what an unplanned pregnancy can cause. We need to try to better the place in
which we live. Not only that, but we also need to go as far as helping other countries. America
can aid other countries in a cold, brutal war, which sometimes causes these countries to

deteriorate. We should not only try to make America a better place, but also the entire world.

Orphans Around The World

South Asia

South Asia; 50,000,000

East Asia

East Asia ; 31,300,000

Africa

United States

Africa ; 58,400,000

United States; 120,000

20,000,000

40,000,000

60,000,000

80,000,000

A lady told me about her first-hand experience with orphans in Russia. The orphanages in
Russia are much worse than in the United States. Even now, thinking about the children brings

tears to my eyes. What they go through is unimaginable. Simple, everyday needs they dont
have. I dont think anyone is truly grateful for what they have until they see what these orphans
go through. They dont have much at all yet they still manage to keep a smile on their face
(Potts).The pie graph above shows the difference between the United States and the top three
countries with the most orphans. 92% of orphans are in developing countries (Orphans). Many
think that problems here in the United States is bad, but it can be ten times worse in a developing
country. When we try to better the lives of other, we have to try to reach as many people as we
can. An estimated 15,000 children die every day from hunger related causes (Orphans). So many
foods go to waste each day, yet people are still dying of hunger. We need to help the whole
nation, or at least try to make some effort. Life expectancy of the world population has reached
69 years old, orphans life expectancy is often less than 30 years old (Life Expectancy of
Orphans). If we reach out we can help orphans live a longer life. There are foundations that
provide children in developing countries with homes and every day needs. Giving to these
foundations allows them to reach out to many orphans, and orphanages, in developing countries.
Aid for orphans, support for orphans. It may sound like these children need a lot, and
saving them will take too much time and effort, but in truth its not really a lot. If we come
together, little by little we can manage to save children from being an orphan. This Christmas I
volunteered to wrap gifts to raise money for orphans. Within the span of 2 weeks, we helped earn
over $3,000 dollars to help implement sustainable technologies for orphanages around the world.
I plan on continuing to volunteer in these fundraisers to help the orphans. If more people wanted
to help volunteer or pitch in to this amazing fundraising work it would be incredible. In 2014 this
orphan outreach foundation plans to implement a large scale rainwater harvesting system at a
rural orphanage in Western Uganda, extend a successful goat house in Bangladesh, and a chicken

house in Rwanda. Imagine a million people carry one grain of sand, those grains will add up to
be a small mountain of sand. If people are aware of what is going on with orphans, they can
decide to help. Orphans need as much aid, as they can get. This problem is the lost cause,
because between cancer, world hunger, human trafficking, etc. no one really pays attention to
what is going with orphans. The goal is to create awareness and help contribute to foundations.
Providing orphan awareness is important because it can better orphan behavior in society,
improve economic status, and help hundreds of children around the world.