Orphans

Challenges facing waiting children in the U.S.
Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people in the U.S. foster-care system turn 18 and are turned away from further support and services. What happens to young people who are removed from foster care after turning 18?
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
30 percent of all U.S. homeless adults have spent time in the foster care system.
60 percent of young women had children within four years after leaving foster care.

Ordinary people like us can change these statistics.
Did you know only 4 percent of families with children (1.7 million households) contain adopted children.

Where the orphans are living
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.
Almost 1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe.
More than 800,000 children pass through America’s foster care system each year.

The Scriptures are clear that the Lord gives the family of God the responsibility to care for the orphan's needs — to love and protect them. In fact, God's concern for orphans is so central to his plan for us here on earth that he inspired James to write:

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this:

to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained

by the world," (James 1:27)

Why would God tell us that caring for orphans is "pure and undefiled religion"?
Maybe it’s because the world sees God’s heart when he works through his people to help the helpless. And maybe it’s because caring for orphans is such a perfect picture of our relationship with God. In our inability to please God in our own efforts, in our utter helplessness to initiate a relationship with him, we are more like orphans and strangers than we like to admit.
It’s time for the body of Christ to step up. The urgent needs of orphans around the world are calling the Christian community today to a radical faith. One church, one family, one person can make a difference.

information from http://www.voiceoftheorphan.org/