The Facts on Today’s Orphan Crisis
Orphan Crisis? Children and Hunger? What's the Story?
Educate yourself and your group. You are part of the solution.
Fact: Nearly 144 million children across the world are orphans.
Fact: Every 2 seconds, another orphan dies from malnutrition.
Fact: 87.6 million orphans live in Asia. 43.4 million orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa. 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fact:
6,000 children are orphaned by AIDS every day. That is newly orphaned child every 14 seconds.
Think about it:
Vulnerable children, with few means of supporting themselves, and are often forced to work in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service, and in the sex trade. They are much more likely to be victims of human trafiking.
Think about it: Around the global, 15,200,000 children have been orphaned by
the AIDS crisis.
If all these children held hands, they would stretch across the United States. By 2011, this virtual chain will reach around the world.
Think about It: What if a disease wiped out all adults on the US west coast? 12,000,000 HIV/AIDS orphans live in Sub-Saharan African. This is number equal to the entire child population of the California, Oregon, and Washington.
Fact: Malnutrition plays a part in more than half of all child
deaths worldwide. Every year, malnutrition is associated with the deaths of five million children under the age of five.
One Rice Bowls Orphanage Partner reports, "In our area, it is estimated that 90% of orphan children have become sexually active by age 12, whether by abuse, exploitation or simple lack of role models in their decimated family unit."
Fact: Even more often, malnutrition cripples children’s growth,
renders them susceptible to disease, dulls their intellects, diminishes their
motivation and their productivity.
Fact:
India has
more orphans than any other nation, totaling 35,000,000 in 2003; nearly 1 out of 10 of
India’s
children are orphans.
Fact: In
India,
one out of two children under the age of 5 is underweight.
Think about it: Consider 4 children you know. What if one of them had so little to eat that they could not grow? In
South
Africa, one out of every four children under
five has stunted growth, a consequence of malnutrition.
Fact: Millions of children suffer from micronutrient malnutrition,
when the body lacks essential minerals and vitamins. These deficiencies can
lead to severe mental or physical impairment, life-threatening anemia, lowered
productivity, blindness, a weakened immune system.
Think about it: How much did you spend on lunch today? Nearly one in four people
,
1.3 billion
, live on less than $1
per day.
Fact: 854 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union.
Fact: By 2020, southern Africa will loose one out of every five
agricultural workers to AIDS. With a shrinking labor force, food is
harder and harder to come by in areas that need it most.
Fact: In like sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 20% of the adult population has been impacted by AIDS, orphaned children not only lose their parents but also teachers, health workers and civil servants who die of the disease.
Fact: Sub-Saharan
Africa has the
greatest portion of children living as orphans. In 2003, there were 43,400,000
children with no living parent. This number represents 12% of the region's
children.
Think about it:16 million children were newly orphaned in 2003.
Fact: It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more
than 18 million children – more than all the children in the United
Kingdom, will have lost at least one parent to AIDS.
Fact: Every week, AIDS claims as many lives as American fatalities in the Vietnam War.
Fact: By 2010, the total number of orphans, from all causes, in Sub-Saharan Africa will
increase to 50,000,000.
Think about it: Given the current number of indviduals infected with HIV or ADIS, the number of children orphaned by AIDS will continue to
rise for at least a decade.
Think about It: Who caring for these kids? Less than 10% of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS are receiving some kind of public support.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the United
Nations Children’s Fund, and the United State Agency for International
Development note that, “to survive and thrive, children and adolescents need to
grow up in a family and community environment that provides for their changing
needs, thereby promoting their healthy and sounds development.” The Rice Bowls
network of supportive, Christian orphanages provide this ideal setting, as opposed
to institutional-style establishments which impede children’s development,
particularly after the loss of a parent.
Information taken from
UNICEF and
The Children on the Brink Report