Who does God define as an orphan?
An Orphan is a child that has been deprived of one or usually both parents or of some protection or advantage. Or, another definition is: A child that is deprived of the benefits of parenting by death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, separation or loss from, one or usually both parents. One child welfare expert recently defined an orphan as a child with no functioning parents.
"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless."- Exodus 22:22-24 NIV
Today there are estimated over 132 million orphans in the world.
That is enough children to go three times around the world at the equator. 
It is hard to grasp such large numbers, so picture being on a very long road trip. If you had these orphans hold hands in a line, you would see over 1,700 orphans per mile. If you were to follow that line of Orphans holding hands, driving 60 mph, you could drive 24 hours a day seeing 1,700 orphans every mile, hour after hour, day after day without stopping for over two months, and you would still see orphans holding hands. How long would it take to stop, and with compassion take one child in your arms, to make a difference for at least one? They are hungry, lonely, and afraid, have holes in their shoes, and face the greatest challenges of any children on the face of the earth. They are very real children who need someone to love them and help them.
There are over 73 million children in the United States. Almost 1/3 (28 million) are living without a father in the home (fatherless) or they are living without their biological parents (orphaned).
Our mission is to help orphaned or abandoned children grow into solid citizens of the world through a sound structure that simultaneously provides them with love from a family type of environment they so desperately want and deserve and to offer them a non-denominational religious education.
Facts about orphans in America:
Almost 3 million (4.1%) of children, in the United States, are living without parents.* (Orphaned)
Over 25 million American children (more than one in three) are being raised in a family with no father present in the home (Fatherless).
Last year, 23,000 ordinary children in Indiana were abused and neglected by their parents. (DCS Statistics 2007 from the State of Indiana)39% of orphan children—28.6 million—live in low-income families.*
12 million children are at risk of going hungry*
A study in 1999 estimated that 1.9 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or more parent (Orphaned).*
Over 50% of youth in shelters and on the streets reported that their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving but did not care.
As many as 2.8 million children live on the streets, a third of whom are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.
1 in 8 youth under the age of 18 will leave home and become homeless in need of services.
In 2007 513,000 orphaned children lived outside of the home (in substitutive/foster care).
Source: The Orphan Society of America- The State of Parentless Children in the U.S. 2007
Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people “age out” of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Of those who aged out of foster care:
54% Earned a high school diploma
2% Obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher
51% Were unemployed
30% Had no health insurance
25% Had been homeless
30% Were receiving public assistance
In 2007 approximately 800,000 children entered the welfare system.*
2 million children live in informal kinship care.*
79,000 children have had parental rights terminiated in 2006(Orphaned).*
22,000 Babies are abandoned in hospitals each year(Orphaned).
17%—12.7 million—live in poor families.*
31% (904,270) children without parents are living in poverty.*
An estimated 550,000 young children live in homeless families.*
As of May 2006, an estimated 1,600 American children have lost a parent(s) to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Orphaned).
In 2000, 1.5 million U.S. children had an incarcerated parent(Orphaned).
90% of children in long-term foster care have a parent that is incarcerated or has been arrested. "One in three children in the welfare system has parents under correctional supervision"(Orphaned).
- 500,000 children in the United States Foster Care System at any time.*
• 122,761 of these foster children available for adoption.*
*All figures are from 2007 and obtained from the United States Department of Health and Human Services website:http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/08poverty.shtml
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 cited the Congressional finding that 100,000-300,000 children in the United States are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation at any time. U.S. Cong. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. PUBLIC LAW 109-164 – January 4, 2005 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/61106.htm
Somewhere between 600,000 and 2 million people, mainly women and children, are victims of human trafficking each year. A University of Pennsylvania study estimates nearly 300,000 children in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses. 70% of homeless youth are or have been involved in some form of prostitution— "most of them runaways or thrown-aways," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "These kids are victims. This is 21st century slavery," Allen said. "They lack the ability to walk away."
(From an Associated Press article June 25,2008)
- Currently, only 55 residential beds are available in the entire United States for the restoration of underage victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
A "Safe House" - defined
With at least 300,000 minors used for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States each year. Mary's Comfort Ministries is positioning itself to provide the region's "Safe House" for victims of Child exploitation. At this very moment, victims of child trafficking are desperately waiting for someone to rescue and care for them. They are not far away in a foriegn land. They are American children and they live right here among us. The Safe House will meet the needs of these tragic victims that are living in every community across the nation. This emergency housing program will provide urgently needed secure shelter and comprehensive care for young adult victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking.
SPECIAL NOTE: The "Safe House" will be a seperate entity of Mary's Comfort Ministries and work in direct partnership with Ahava Kids
The FBI has determined that the average age for females entering prostitution in the US is 13 and for boys 11. 12 is the average age of entry into porn and prostitution, but their ages are often mislabeled. Familial prostitution – the selling of one’s family member for sex in exchange for drugs, shelter, or money - is also a large and overlooked problem in the United States. Currently, only 55 residential beds are available in the entire United States for the restoration of underage victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
"For you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore".
Abandoned
Every day in our own country parents abandon their children.
Here are excerpts from some recent headline news stories: "on a cold Christmas Eve night in Alabama, she stood in the emergency room at Springhill Memorial Hospital, looking around until her eyes locked on supervisor Teri Little. Her voice hollow, she asked, "Is this where I drop my baby off?" TIME Magazine article: A Refuge For Throwaways
"Nearly every abandoned child came from a single-parent household. In September, one father walked into a hospital and left nine children, ages 1 to 17. He reportedly told hospital workers that he'd been overwhelmed since his wife died a few days after their youngest was born." -TIME Magazine article: The Abandoned Children of Nebraska
Every state has a safe-haven law, intended to allow mothers who might otherwise abandon unwanted babies in unsafe places to legally leave them at hospitals. Many who use the law are adoptive parents or guardians who took in children abandoned by biological parents. Questions that we must ask ourselves are:
Where do these children wind up?
Are they in the foster care system bouncing from one home to the next?
Are they going from one bad situation to another?
Do they decide to runaway and become homeless?
Do they resort to prostitution to survive?
Do they numb the pain with drugs and alcohol?
Do they become criminals and further clog the overcrowded correctional system?
Do they give up and commit suicide?
What kinds of parents do they become?
Every child who is temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment is entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the state. Children may be placed in institutions such as orphanages, group homes, foster family homes, relative placements, hospitals or other institutions charged with their care. Through these alternative care settings, the government must ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child. Ironically, these placements are often harmful to children.
- 905,000 children in America were subject to maltreatment (abuse or neglect) in 2006.*
- 43% percent of runaway youth (girls and boys) reported physical abuse before leaving home and 34% reported being sexually abused before running away from home.
- Over 50% of youth in shelters and on the streets reported that their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving but did not care
- 64.1% or 580,105 children experienced neglect.
- 16% or 144,800 were physically abused.
- 8.8% or 79,640 were sexually abused.
- 6.6% or 59,730 children were psychologically maltreated.
- 2.2% or 19,910 children were medically neglected.
- Over 28% or 253,400 of the children in state care had been abused while in the system.
- In Missouri, a study found that 57% of the sample children were placed in foster care settings that put them "at the very least at a high risk of abuse or neglect."
- At least 12.5% of the state's foster care population, have been sexually abused while in state care.
Just over 175,000 infants and toddlers were victims of substantiated abuse and neglect in 2003. (Infants and toddlers have the highest rate of victim investigations—16.4 per 1,000—and are most likely to suffer a recurrence).*
*All figures are from the United States Department of Health and Human Services website: www.aspe.hhs.gov unless otherwise noted.
Many foster children face grossly substandard and over-crowded facilities, inadequate and at times inhumane care, physical and sexual abuse, cruel and degrading treatment, and life-threatening deprivation. The reality is: Too many children are moved too many times while in foster care; too many children are living with grandparents or other family in poverty; too many children are waiting to be adopted; and too many children are 'aging out' as young adults without a safety net of a loving family or even a loving relationship with one committed stable adult.
"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."- Mother Teresa
On a national level, the General Accounting Office recently examined the issue of whether the nation's foster children were being adequately serviced with respect to their health care needs. The GAO found that:
- despite foster care agency regulations requiring comprehensive routine health care, an estimated 12% of young foster children receive no routine health care, 34% receive no immunizations, and 32% have some identified health needs that are not met
- an estimated 78% of young foster children are at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus as a result of parental drug abuse, yet only about 9% of foster children are tested for HIV
- young foster children placed with relatives receive fewer health-related services than children placed with nonrelative foster parents, possibly since relative caregivers receive less monitoring and assistance from caseworkers
- That the Department of Health and Human Services has not designated any technical assistance to assist states with health-related programs for foster children and does not audit states' compliance with health-related safeguards for foster children. General Accounting Office, Foster Care: Health Needs of Many Young Children are Unknown and Unmet, Letter Report, GAO/HEHS-95-14, May 26, 1995.
Even in some institutions that are clean and provide adequate food, staff neglect children; babies are left to lie alone in cribs or small beds with no stimulation, play, or adult attention; adolescents are not provided the guidance and care needed to prepare for adulthood.
Children and youth are often denied contact with extended family members and communities. Educational opportunities are frequently lacking and medical care abysmal. Denied the help and care of a natural family, many of these children and youth are further disadvantaged by systems that perpetuate abuse and neglect. We must act if we are to change the future for the millions of orphaned children.
The good news is the only number we need to be concerned with is “one.”
What does the one true God want to do through you and your church to make an eternal difference in the life of one child at a time? Only one organization has enough reach, resources, and people to connect with every one of these children:
it is... the church.
Don't underestimate the power of "ONE"
Be the "ONE" for someone today!
Get involved! Be a part of this great movement to restore the God given dignity to our children!
Urgent Needs Contact Us
"...life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"If the Church in America wants to make a lasting difference on poverty in the most desperate places of the world, we need to reorient our thinking away from traditional charity to economic development: from hand-outs to hand-ups, from dependancy to dignity, from short-term to long-term."
"And perhaps most importantly, we need to reorient our thinking from us coming in and "solving the problems of the poor." We might be able to provide sustenance for today, but lasting change is only possible when we partner with the poor in addressing physical and spiritual poverty and equip them to become the change they hope to see."
-Peter Greer, President of Hope International
© Mary's Comfort Ministries, Inc. 2009