tagged w/ Orphans
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Ryan Keith, President of Forgotten Voices, wins a prestigious award for his efforts to help children orphaned by AIDS in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Check out this great video highlight from the award ceremony:
http://youtu.be/okviJQSvZeERyan Keith, President of Forgotten Voices, wins a prestigious award for his efforts to... more
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Audio interview (and transcription) with Washington Post reporter Philip Shenon, who discusses his 9/11 book, The Commission. http://www.mrmedia.com/?p=375Audio interview (and transcription) with Washington Post reporter Philip Shenon, who... more
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Huddled in a make shift tent,
With scraps of torn cloth, for blankets, now their bed,
Barely any food around their bellies to be fed,
While Helicopters hover and roam,~ With Hope~
Clothes around them, taken from bones dead,
“Borrowed”, someone respectively said,
This is not a night of fun, at a Campsite,Huddled in a make shift tent,
With scraps of torn cloth, for blankets, now their bed,... more
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CNN.....
June 16th, 2011
03:11 PM ET
My Take: On adoption, Christians should put up or shut up
Editor's Note: Jason Locy is co-author of Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society. He and his wife are adoptive parents and participants in Safe Families for Children, a voluntary alternative to foster care.
By Jason Locy, Special to CNN
When the Arkansas Supreme court struck down a voter-approved initiative that banned cohabitating straight and gay couples from adopting orphaned children, the Christian community predictably erupted.
Byron Babione of the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian lawyers, attributed the April ruling to a “political movement afoot to undermine and destroy marriage.” Baptist Press, the publications arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, ran an article that quoted Babione as saying the ruling reflected “a campaign to place adult wants and desires over the best interests of children."
On one hand, these comments aren’t surprising. Conservative evangelicals have decried “the anti-family gay agenda” for decades. On the other, they underscore the way many Christians denounce a social problem that they have no plan for solving.
And the problem here is not ultimately gays adopting — the prevention of which, I believe, was the impetus behind the Arkansas initiative and behind adoption restrictions in various other states. The problem is a global orphan crisis involving tens of millions of children.
In the United States, there are approximately 116,000 foster children waiting to be adopted. That means a judge has either severed the rights of the original parents or the parents have voluntarily signed their children over to the government.
To put this into perspective, we might compare the number of American orphans to the purported 16 million Southern Baptists who attend more than 42,000 churches nationwide. Quick math reveals that there are roughly 138 Southern Baptists for every child in the American foster care system waiting to be adopted. To say it another way, this single denomination has an enormous opportunity to eradicate the orphan crisis in America.
If you’ve spent any time in church, you’ve probably heard a sermon on Noah or Moses or David. But how many sermons have you heard on the biblical mandate to care for orphans?
When was the last time you heard your pastor declare, “if you choose to adopt a child we will stand with you. We will provide respite care, financial help and do everything possible to meet the needs of that child?”
Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics — the Christian Church — can provide safe, loving, permanent homes for these kids. Our faith dictates that we fight for a better way in both words and deeds.
When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him, and Peter responded yes, Jesus didn’t tell him to picket the wolves. He told Peter to feed and tend his sheep.
Some churches and Christian groups are stepping up. Focus on the Family launched a Wait No More initiative in Colorado in 2008, forming partnerships between local churches, adoption agencies and the government in order to encourage families to adopt through the foster care system. As a result, the number of Colorado orphans waiting for a family has been cut in half.
Christianity Today ran a 2010 report headlined “Adoption is Everywhere,” illustrating the trend among churches and Christians who are giving “attention to orphans, adoption, the fatherless, and so on.”
Despite such efforts, the American orphan crisis remains. Too many churches still find it easier to stand behind a megaphone decrying the morality of laws than to stand beside a child in need.
Thousands of orphaned children in America need grandmas and grandpas, embarrassing uncles and crazy aunts. They need someone to teach them to fly a kite and throw a ball and read a book and tie their shoes. They need someone to call mom and dad.
In fairness, adopting a child is not easy and many of these children face difficult adjustments once they’re adopted. They have experienced pain, loss, hurt, confusion and misplaced trust. They have endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse — things most of us don’t even want to imagine.
In 2008, when my wife and I adopted through Bethany Christian Services, the organization educated us on the possible challenges of adopting a child. They informed us that even though our daughter was a baby when we brought her home, she would eventually ask tough questions, as would our friends and family.
But my wife and I know our faith demands action and that sometimes action takes us out of our comfort zone.
As a father of three — two biological children and an adopted child — and a host to a number of children that have needed a temporary home I can tell you these kids need less arguing over who should and should not be allowed to adopt and more families stepping up and saying, “we will adopt.”
It is time Christians decide to either step up or shut up. If a Christian group wants to wade into the discussion over who should adopt, it needs to put its money and manpower where its mouth is.
That means not only challenging families and churches to adopt from foster care (which costs virtually nothing financially) but also to adopt children resulting from unplanned pregnancies, children with special needs and children of mixed race or minority ethnicity.
If Christians’ only desire is to fight the culture wars and score political points, then they should continue to lean on empty rhetoric. But if they truly care about the family and the Bible, they’ll begin caring for children who desperately need a home.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jason Locy.CNN.....
June 16th, 2011
03:11 PM ET
My Take: On adoption, Christians should... more
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Whenever I travel to Africa, I get to do my absolute favorite thing in all the world. I get to listen to children share the dreams they have for life. I love it because their dreams are all about hope. In a world that has declared them poor, troubled, or forgotten, they are actually strong children with big dreams:
http://www.forgottenvoices.org/blog/2011/04/09/children-of-hope-memory-more/Whenever I travel to Africa, I get to do my absolute favorite thing in all the world.... more
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It starts with getting behind a trustworthy organization that’s focused on sustainable, holistic care for orphaned children. Social media has an uncanny ability to make anything go viral, creating a positive or negative buzz that can enact tremendous change.It starts with getting behind a trustworthy organization that’s focused on... more
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"OPERATION DREAM" An organization that is dedicated to feeding POOR ORPHAN CHILDREN in the Dominican Republic,But one of the Megalithic inspirations behind "Operation_Dream" is an Intelligent Kind Hearted 14 year old Teen named,KARIN OLIVO, Who In my heart & in the heart of these little dreamer's,is very much a real life SUPERHERO That combats hunger & provides lots of HELP to NEEDY CHILDREN who really appreciates the HELP,Plus I'm proud to say she is my little cousin as well,KARIN OLIVO,A big contributer of HAPPINESS,HOPE & LITTLE DREAMER SMILES,Well Here she is in her television premier on a local Southern Californian News Station called ABC7, Explaining what "Operation Dream" is all about & how like her,you can provide HELP & DONATE Food,Smiles & Happiness to these little DREAMER'S..For More Information on how you can become a Hero to these Little Dreamers just like KARIN...Just go to...http://allaboutthedream.org & donate,you can also Tweet them @ http://www.Twitter.com/Operation_Dream,SO PLEASE DONATE & HELP US Combat the evil nightmare called Hunger...GOD BLESS & Thank you.."OPERATION DREAM" An organization that is dedicated to feeding POOR ORPHAN... more
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Meet Dan, a new dad who's joining tentogether.org, a movement making massive impact for orphans thru no individual effort
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I1If-cilKEMeet Dan, a new dad who's joining tentogether.org, a movement making massive... more
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The purpose of the trip is described in this brief video. Thanks for watching. You can read more below. We now know of over 10,000 kids who need a champion. This trip is for me to go meet more of them so I can share their stories with you.
http://travelwithfvi.blogspot.com/2011/01/returning-to-africa-today.htmlThe purpose of the trip is described in this brief video. Thanks for watching. You can... more
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January 12, 2011, will mark one year to the day that the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, resulting in what is arguably the worst natural disaster in modern history. Of the 1.5 million Haitian people who lost their homes in the earthquake, the majority are still living in makeshift tent cities, and the promised billions of dollars in foreign aid have yet to materialize. While financial donors and peacekeepers have resources that vastly overshadow those of the Haitian government, a lack of coordination in their endeavors has hampered the country’s efforts to recover.
“Tent Life: Haiti” is a very timely collection of stunning portraits of dignity, hope and joy by New York photographer Wyatt Gallery, inspirational photographs that show the reality of Haitian lives a year after the earthquake’s destruction and its aftermath. Gallery’s photographs present an artful and unselfconscious study of the resilience of an irrepressible people. They are beautiful narrative illustrations of the lives of a people experiencing a painfully arduous process of recovery, but they don’t romanticize the tent cities or the desperate living conditions of the Haitians who were rendered homeless by the earthquake.
Rather than using the medium of photography mainly as an attempt to understand what has happened in Haiti, Gallery’s portraits reveal a sense of intimacy and closeness with the Haitian survivors, as well as a genuine wish to be helpful. His work stands as a tender expression of the unexpected and unlikely sense of hope that he discovered in the residents of the Haitian tent cities.
This piece presents a number of inspiring, deeply engaging high-resolution color photographs, a memorable photo-gallery of additional images, a documentary short film and an HD-version of the official music video, “We Are The World 25 For Haiti.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/tent-life-in-haiti-portraits-of-profound-dignity-in-the-wake-of-devastation/January 12, 2011, will mark one year to the day that the devastating 7.9 magnitude... more
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A way to share in a Christmas miracle story in the making.
A few years ago I wrote a song called, “The Magic of Christmas.” I revisited it once again and wanted to find a way to use it to help a charity that embodies the spirit of the song: bringing warmth, a sense of security, and peace in this holiday season. I wanted to find a way to use my music to bring blessings to those who may be in need.
This brought me to the work of SOS Children’s Villages. They work with orphaned and abandoned children in 132 countries across the world to heal the loss of homes and parents. They do so by constructing a home (an SOS Village) and introducing a loving mother figure who will raise several children who have been abandoned or orphaned. This work is life changing for children who have suffered devastating losses.
I joined with SOS Children’s Villages to create a youtube video that can be played against the background of “The Magic of Christmas”. It illustrates their remarkable humanitarian work. We created a MILLION SONG DOWNLOAD Challenge where for 99 cents the song can be downloaded and profits of this go towards the SOS program.
To view the video, where the song can be downloaded, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuxNA4u8dI
It can also be viewed by searching youtube THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS SOS.
You can download THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS song from iTunes http://tinyurl.com
/magicofXmas
Here’s how you can help SOS Children’s Villages help children:
Join the MILLION SONG DOWNLOAD Challenge so it can succeed. One million downloads of the song “The Magic of Christmas” means $400,000 for SOS Children’s Villages if accomplished by the end of 2010. So much good can be done for these children by SOS Children’s Village with $400,000.
Similarly, this is not a request for people to donate thousands of dollars. It’s a request for a million people to contribute less than a dollar and enjoy a new Christmas song.
This is a simple way for us to join together to make the world a better place this holiday season.
I hope you will take The Magic of Christmas into your heart and home.A way to share in a Christmas miracle story in the making.
A few years ago I... more
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