National Adoption Awareness Month

Below is an email that I received from Addie Sanchez, a friend of mine who is adopting from China as well.  I thought it was really interesting and decided to post it here, in the spirit of National Adoption Awareness Month. 

Orphan Statistics

It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)

The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million)

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

2,102,400 more children become orphans every year in Africa alone 

Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but… 

Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen

Each day 38,493 orphans age out

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home

In Russia and the Ukraine, studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit sucide before they reach age eighteen

These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals 

Another Russian study reported that of the 15,000 orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000 were unemployed, 6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years…

In a perfect world, there would be no need for adoption. Biological families would stay together.  Children would be raised by loving parents or grandparents and remain in their homeland, surrounded by their culture and connected to their roots tangibly.  Obviously, these statistics illustrate that we do not live in a perfect world.  Adoption is not the answer for solving the underlying issues of poverty and disease and famine and war.  It won’t stop the cycle of more children becoming orphans.  It is a life-line thrown out to a precious few… it rescues a small percentage from the going over the falls.  

It can be difficult to allow ourselves to really think about these statistics and what they represent.  Its easy to respond numbly and see the statistics in terms of thousands or millions… but when we allow ourselves to become personally involved and risk the heart-grief that follows awareness, they become more than mere statistics… they become real children with real hearts that ache for their parents and real bodies that hunger for care.  These precious children need advocates.  They need men and women willing to make a difference… willing to stand in the gap and act on their behalf.