Would Jesus be cool with keeping poor kids in orphanages?

[me b zola]

Would Jesus be cool with keeping poor kids in orphanages?

In a small village in Uganda there was a family in crisis. Their granddaughter had just fallen into their care and she was sick. Her mother was struggling with mental health problems and had not been giving her proper care. When she arrived at her grandparents, abandoned by her Mom, she was so malnourished they feared for her life.

With limited resources and the hospital an hour away, the family did not know what to do. They loved their granddaughter and wanted to find her help so they approached the leaders in their community about the situation. The leaders contacted some missionaries in town and told them about this family.
And just like that, this little girl was brought to an orphanage, where she would be separated from her family for the next 3 years.

The family wasn't offered transportation to the hospital, or advice on nutrition for a malnourished child, or high caloric foods or help paying hospital bills. The only option presented was the removal of their child.

~~

Essentially, an orphan had been created.

~~

All over the world we are confusing poverty for families not loving their children- In Haiti, in Cambodia, in Kenya, in Brazil, in Honduras. I’ve spoken to folks working on the ground in all of these countries and the common experience is that not enough is being done to help poor families keep their children.

Nearly every family we have resettled a child to has told us, had support been available to help them keep their child, they would have never put them in an orphanage in the first place.
Poverty can’t be the reason the majority of children are growing up in institutional care. But this is what is happening and this is what needs to change.

~more @ link~
http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/2013/10/would-jesus-be-cool-with-keeping-poor.html

Thought provoking essay. I hope you all will read and consider

[MADem]

1. This was common in Europe back in the day.

Usually a mother would die, in childbirth or of consumption or some other dreadful ailment, and the father would be unable to cope, so he'd dump the kids off at the orphanage.

The only thing that would save the kids is if there was a daughter (always a daughter, it seems, rarely a son) who would step up and take over the "mother" role so that the family could continue in their existing situation.

[No Vested Interest]

2. Gender roles were more proscribed in an earlier day, even not so long ago.

Thus, widowers often remarried very quickly to have a woman in the house to care for motherless children.
Or they were sent to orphanages or boarding schools.

Men had little or no knowledge of meal preparation, and until ca 70 years ago, were mainly doing physical labor in the workforce.

Also, remember, there were no Social Security payments for minor children, until well into the 20th century.

My father's mother (my grandmother) died when he was one month old, in 1905. Luckily, there were several young unmarried aunts, in addition to his grandmother, and he and his sister were well-mothered in young childhood, but he and his sister attended various boarding schools, of which there were many at that time, due to early parental deaths.

[MADem]

3. Yes indeed-the lucky kids had loving relatives, and the luckiest had loving relatives with means. nt

[me b zola]

4. This essay, along with other news articles that I have posted on the subject,

are speaking about current orphanages. Most of these orphanages are in underdeveloped nations, and they are preying upon poor people in difficult circumstances to take their children.

To my knowledge the author of this article has no connection to adoptee rights or reform of adoption laws, but what she reports is what child advocates and people from adoptee rights groups have been saying: The children would be better served if we assisted poor families in keeping their families together rather than removing children from their families & communities.

What would Jesus do?

[MADem]

6. Jesus would probably fire up the loaves and fishes for everyone.

That "Father Knows Best" mentality is alive and well, though, and leadership in countries with authoritarian rule often think they know best. They also like the opportunity to inculcate their values system into the youth in the old "Get 'em while they're young" spirit.

[restorefreedom]

5. don't want to hurt anyone's feelings who has adopted,

but many that are critical of the explosion of white wealthy westerners adopting children from poverty stricken countries will cite this very issue. even orphans often have extended family in country. but the countries can make a quicker buck charging outrageous adoption fees, while little of that money goes to address the underlying problems.

i have friends who have adopted internationally, and even some of them have been conflicted about it.