!dea Camp Morning #1 - The Global State of the Orphan

Steve and I are currently attending !dea Camp, a collaborative conference where everyone gets a voice and chance to throw in their thoughts, ask lots of questions and really engage with the topic. This years theme is 'Orphan Care'. 

These are just a snippet of my notes from the morning session (there will be three more notes like this to come in the next coming days) - there were 8 different speakers (with 5-20 minutes each) plus workshops where all delegates were actively encouraged to throw in their ideas. 

Some of these are statistics. 

Some are experiences from work in various fields. 

Some are just simply random musings. 

The point is not what they are, but what it triggers us to think...to feel...to see...to do. 

Feel free to comment with your thoughts, experiences, opinions!!

 ----

// The orphan crisis seems to large with 150-200 million orphans worldwide

//The people of God are the hope of the world

// Research highlights that in America we do not have the ability to be vulnerable. Americans are the most in debt, overspent, most overweight & most addicted – these are numbing mechanisms to cope with not being able to be broken

//80% of people on mission trips to orphans are women

// The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough Christians in the world – it is that the compassion of the Christians in the world isn’t enough

// If our only solutions to the Orphan Crisis are building/funding orphanages or international adoption, we will only reach around 1-2% of the orphans in need – we need to think outside of the box

// Fatherlessness is written in the hearts of this generation – songs, movies, blogs, TV shows…

// Fatherlessness is the engine driving our worst problems – teenage pregnancy, gang culture, homicide…

//The church needs to raise up mentors to help – In Portland, OR at the mentoring project, there  are 1000 kids on the formal waiting list for mentors

// Churches – start small, start with what is already going on, start with prayer

//Jeremiah 32:7 – Nothing is too difficult for God

// There is no reason the Orphan Crisis cannot be solved – Civil Rights: look at what happened 1960-1969? Global Warming: No one even talked about it 15 years ago.

// We need to work out what the “best interest of the child” really means

// Institutionalised care (orphanages/groups homes) are 5-10 times more costly than family care

// International adoption costs around $30,000. Figures suggest raising a child until their 18 in America costs over $200,000. That is $230,000 that could be spent on reaching multiple orphans, not just one.

// In USA, we have sought to eliminate many/most orphanages and group homes knowing these are not in “the best interest of the child” YET we continue to fund and see the solution oversees as building orphanages

// What if we invested our efforts in helping the people of those nations take care of the children in their nations?

// After the mass rise of international adoptions out of China, the government has put its efforts into foster care and domestic adoption solutions – in 2005 the number of children adopted that stayed in China, surpassed the number adopted internationally

// It is not popular to give to AIDS/HIV funding, but this is a major factor in reducing orphans

// Lets not pretend that a week in a foreign country on missions really benefits that place – it changes us MORE than it changes them

// International missions trips: we pay $2000 to go and paint a fence or orphanage in Uganda, but for $5 a day, we could pay a Ugandan national to do the same and provide him with a job

// Most of President Obama’s staff mentor young people

// Just showing up and being there is 90% of mentoring

// It can take over a year of mentoring before you can really break into the heart of a fatherless child

// How can you help?

            // Start small

            // Start with what is already going on

            // Start with prayer

----


Thoughts? Feelings? Comments? Reactions?