Upon starting to research orphanages, every book I read quickly qualified that many of the inhabitants of orphanages throughout the ages, were not in fact full orphans. Many were half-orphans, for instance. Or my aunt told me about how many parents during the Depression used to send their children to an orphanage (or some other sort of home) for one week a month when they were unable to afford food.

Many orphanages in the 19th and 20th century were opened originally because of Cholera or some other epidemic, or after the Civil War when thousands of children were newly orphaned. During the Irish Famine, there were hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 15 in the newly-opened workhouses. After the tsunami in 2004, orphanages were opened to deal with the massive number of new orphans.

Child Services in many countries will remove a child from his/her parents if there are signs of neglect or ill-health of the parents. Even today, many parents would send a developmentally or physically disabled child to a home that is able to better care for their child than they could.

Women ashamed of being unwed mothers or mothering illegitimate children would place their babies on the stairs of churches, convents and hospitals in many countries. Interestingly enough, many of these mothers would come back and act as wet nurses for their own babies. It was like when Moses, in the book of Exodus, would only nurse from his mother while he was living in the Princess of Egypt’s house.

Wherever the children come from, for whatever the reason, they still remain in the same state of need.

Therefore, we created a very basic chart that breaks down why a child would ever need “substitute child care”. Research and analysis of each category and subcategory on this chart can fill volumes. Each child has extremely different physical and emotional needs.

It’s only a non-definitive roadmap to start understanding the plight of children in need and the institutions created to care for them.

Why do some children need "Substitute Child Care"?

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.