Upon deciding to blog about the plight of orphans and the state of orphanages around the world, I quickly found that I had writer’s block.
In the past, I’ve spoken with many people who work with underprivileged children, I’ve read books about orphanages and have perused many an article on the matter. But I couldn’t string together two sentences.
I thought about listing statistics of the world events that have created the innumerable amounts of orphans in matters of months, weeks and days. I considered composing a well researched comparison of all religions and their respective commandments and views about orphans.
I began to write about the amazing and awe-inspiring history of the General Israel Orphans Home for Girls is located in Jerusalem, whose website will be the home of this nascent blog.
Nothing seemed right.
I took out a blank sheet of paper and wrote across the top:
What is an orphan?
My intent was to start listing how the concept of what an orphan is has changed over the years. That orphanages don’t only take care of those children who have lost a parent, but also take in children from broken homes, who have been physically and mentally abused, who have no one to care for them.
I realized that I was asking the wrong question.
An orphan is not a “what”.
An orphan is not just a number in some bureaucrat’s ledger.
An orphan is not something we adopt for a dollar a day.
I duly crossed it out and replaced it with:
Who is an orphan?
Yes. We are going to bring statistics on this blog. We are going to list comparative analyses of the state of orphans and orphanages around the world. We are going to write biographies of famous and not-so-famous orphans and former residents of orphanages. We are going to interview people who are making changes for orphans around the world.
I was blessed to be raised in a home by two loving parents. I can never know what an orphan in Jerusalem or Zimbabwe thinks while laying in bed at night. I don’t know what the new “normal” is for her.
The Bible has the positive commandment to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Just as you know yourself, your loves and hates, your good times and bad times, you should do the same unto others. I would posit that until we understand the orphan, we cannot truly love or sufficiently help them.
This is not an isolated campaign. The blog, and our entire social media presence, is going to document our journey of learning. We are going to share other articles, videos, and multimedia items on our Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr accounts, and listen to how you understand what you read.
Thank you for joining with us. Together, we can begin to change the world, one child at a time.
