Roughly 12,800 miles from the United States is Malawi, Africa. The population of Malawi is 12.2 million. Just about one million of the people are orphans.
Absence of food, cash, water and health-care are partially to blame. HIV/AIDS is answerable for over 500k of the orphans. An estimated one million people are infected by HIV/Aids[**]. Mothers pass the illness on to their new-borns and never receive any sort of treatment. Ultimately the parent or elders die, leaving older kids to look after the more youthful siblings or leaving the kid completely alone. That cycle continues repeatedly every day in Africa.
Most families have multiple children and don't have enough cash to feed and care for everyone, so they take them to shelters or just leave them behind hoping that they are going to be better off. Most shelters simply have no room nor the resources to take in every orphan. The requirement for food and cleaner water to drink is critical.
There are countless hundreds of orphanages through Africa. The SOS Children's Village do their part to make an appalling situation, have a good ending. In the village, "mothers" are allotted to each household. Theses women make a lifelong commitment to look after the orphans they are allotted. The assignment shortly mimics a family of brothers and sisters. A household "mother" can have up to twelve dozen children at a time. There are several of these villages across Malawi that house and support more than 5,000 orphans and other vulnerable kids.
Pop vocalist, Madonna, has also been doing her part to help. In 2008, she paid a visit to the youngsters of Malawi and filmed a documentary about the orphan kids. She also shared with us the proven fact that she, herself, lost her mother when she was 6 years of age. She put herself directly in the middle of the agony of these children and has shone a light on a serious problem in the world. Those children need more people to stand up and love and care for them.
Whether it be money, support or a simple act of recognition, there is more work to be done.
Absence of food, cash, water and health-care are partially to blame. HIV/AIDS is answerable for over 500k of the orphans. An estimated one million people are infected by HIV/Aids[**]. Mothers pass the illness on to their new-borns and never receive any sort of treatment. Ultimately the parent or elders die, leaving older kids to look after the more youthful siblings or leaving the kid completely alone. That cycle continues repeatedly every day in Africa.
Most families have multiple children and don't have enough cash to feed and care for everyone, so they take them to shelters or just leave them behind hoping that they are going to be better off. Most shelters simply have no room nor the resources to take in every orphan. The requirement for food and cleaner water to drink is critical.
There are countless hundreds of orphanages through Africa. The SOS Children's Village do their part to make an appalling situation, have a good ending. In the village, "mothers" are allotted to each household. Theses women make a lifelong commitment to look after the orphans they are allotted. The assignment shortly mimics a family of brothers and sisters. A household "mother" can have up to twelve dozen children at a time. There are several of these villages across Malawi that house and support more than 5,000 orphans and other vulnerable kids.
Pop vocalist, Madonna, has also been doing her part to help. In 2008, she paid a visit to the youngsters of Malawi and filmed a documentary about the orphan kids. She also shared with us the proven fact that she, herself, lost her mother when she was 6 years of age. She put herself directly in the middle of the agony of these children and has shone a light on a serious problem in the world. Those children need more people to stand up and love and care for them.
Whether it be money, support or a simple act of recognition, there is more work to be done.
About the Author:
Cecilia Owens, a freelance travel writer also wrote these articles about Malawi: Suffering of Malawi children and Facts about Lake Malawi.
