HOW CAN WE HELP ORPHANS ?

1. Seek them out. Do not allow yourself to forget the orphans. My guess is that very few people feel “called” to action the first few times they hear about or see orphans. Your role in orphan care will become clearer the more you expose yourself to their plight. Sign yourself up as a follower of an orphan care blog, such as the Reece’s Rainbow blog. Subscribe to a youtube channel (try Buckner Int.) dedicated to improving the lives of orphans worldwide. Pray diligently for orphans. Their needs are multiple... pray that families step up to adopt them, that their caretakers are kind and committed. Pray for their health, that their physical needs are met, that they are protected emotionally and psychologically. Pray that their governments keep foreign adoptions open. Pray for guidance concerning your role in the orphan crisis.

2. Virtually adopt a child. Visit sites that list “waiting children” and pick out a child as your own. Print off pictures of the child to frame for your desk and to stick up on your fridge. Tell everyone about your adopted child and how they can help bless him or her. Pray for this child daily. You may find that you are able to donate specifically to this child’s adoption grant fund, or even that you can send needed items to this child’s orphanage. Write about your child on your blog, Facebook, and Twitter... raise awareness of his or her existence and need for a family. I have noticed that almost every child that is advocated for in this manner has been  committed to within months. 

3. Find a family that is adopting and adopt them. Adoption is an arduous and stressful process. Families who are in the throes of an adoption could use all kinds of support. You can leave encouraging comments on their adoption blog, blog about them on your own blog, help them raise funds, or offer to write or edit letters and documents needed for the adoption process. As you follow your adopted family’s journey, you will find many ways to connect with them and support their mission.

4. Support ministries that work to keep children with their families, educate cultures, and train care workers. Many children are separated from their parents due to natural disasters, disease, and poverty. Other children are left behind in maternity wards because they are born with “imperfections.” Parents of all of these children are surely heartbroken to let them go but they have been pressured by circumstance and cultural rejection. By going after the root causes of the orphan crisis we can keep many children from ever becoming one. You can get started by volunteering with an orphan ministry, going on a mission trip to an orphanage, or connecting with a special educator whose focus is in-country support.

GOKULAM BALASADANAM - ORPHANAGE IN PERINTHALMANNA,KERALA,INDIA

 ’Gokulam Balasadanam’  is one of the seva projects established in 1999 by broad-minded and charity oriented people of malappuram district, with the purpose of supporting children from the poor and neglected sections of our society. Gokulam provides supports for adopted children by providing them free food, housing and education. Gogulam adopts children from the weak and suffering families amongst us. A healthy environment based on culture and traditions for the destitute is promoted by Gokulam. Presently we have a strength of 40 inmates. We expect to have a strength of 50 inmates this year itself. All boys between the age of 6 and 1 years, hailing from the underprivileged section of the society including adivasi / vanavasi class. They attend local school for their formal education. Gokulam adopts children from the weak and suffering families amongst us.A healthy environment based on culture and traditions for the destitute is promoted by Gokulam.Presently we have a strength of 40 inmates.We expect to have a strength of 50 inmates this year itself.All boys between the age of 6 and 17 years,hailing from the underprivilaged section of the society including adivasi/ Vanav class.They attend local school for their formal education.

In addition to education the activities here cover farming , rearing of cow, cooking, spiritual training etc. Occasional visits by spiritual mentors and important persons in the social and cultural fields very much help the personality  development of the inmates. They wake up at 5 am and follow a routine morning chanting, meditation, soorya namskar, study, household services, Sangh shakha and bajans. Special coaching is being provided for Yoga and Art of living is also incorporated. Tuition facilities are available for the weak students in academic matters.

The present location is at kunnappally, a place with mother nature shines with her full beauty and glory. The exact place is called Adivaram. You can reach there by Pattambi road. The place is situated in Perinthalmanna municipality itself.

The President, Treasurer, and some of the Committee members of Gokulam has personally took up a Himalayan task by arranging a loan from State Bank of Travancore Perinthalmanna branch, and purchased a spacious and proper building with adequate facilities and enough land for the future development and growth of the needy children of Gokulam who has to be the pillars of future BHARATHAM. We have taken the responsibility happily, with lots of hope and big plans in mind, for the flourishing of Gokulam for the future.

As one of the areas in India with negative atmosphere and very difficult surrounding in every aspect, and many difficulties to face for such an organisation like Gokulam, we have no other option than asking for kindhearted support from good people like you. As we are struggling to meet even the usual expenses and repay the loan amount, further in Malappuram District the number of needy children are shooting up day by day. As we are not getting any support in any form from Government, We have no other alternative than putting up this humble request to give us a helping hand by financial support and charity from people like your good self for a noble cause.

GOODNESS OF ORPHANAGES

Orphanages are an important part of our society. Too often children find themselves in a situation where they don't have parents to take care of them. The reasons can be many but the end the result is the same: they become kids with nowhere to go and no way to get the proper care they need. That is why orphanages are so important. They create an environment where kids are able to be cared for and not just in the way of basic necessities. But in that they can have the sort of love and compassion that they need from a family environment as well as a good education to get them where they need to go as they get older.

Orphanages have been around for hundreds of years. The very first orphanages were founded as far back as the 1st century, though the orphanages we know today started to pop up more and more in the 1950s. A lot of the children in the United States in orphanages were there because they had lost family in the war. More orphanages popped up around the world, from Jewish orphanages in Israel to ones in Africa to take care of the many children there. As things have changed there are not as many orphanages in the United States as their once were, but there are still plenty to be found in other countries.

The kind of care given to kids in orphanages varies depending on their age. Many will take in children as young as infants and do the best they can to raise them and give them the proper nutrition and care they need to grow healthy and strong. As kids get older they'll be educated, usually in-house. Classrooms are often set up to teach kids everything from their alphabet and multiplication tables to useful vocational skills that will lead them to solid jobs when they eventually leave.

Many orphanages also often allow for adoption of their children which makes it easier on them to have more room to take in other kids and gives those adopted a chance at a normal family life. It's the best outcome for a lot of these children. Sometimes it also happens that there is family that they didn't know about who discovers they have a niece or a cousin in an orphanage and steps in to take care of them. It happens more often than people would think!

They are an important institution in society. They give children the kind of upbringing they need regardless of their family situation.

HARMFULL EFFECTS OF ORPHANAGES

Today, millions of vulnerable children around the world are growing up in orphanages, without the love and care of a family. In the best cases, the children are receiving food, clothes, a cot or bed, an education and a roof over their heads. They are supported by well-meaning charities, churches, individuals and governments. In the worst cases, they are isolated, starved, abused, sold into international adoption or sex cartels, and many die.

In all cases, they never get the love, support and sense of identity that only a loving family can give. Hundreds of studies tell us - as does our common sense - that family life is critical to a child's healthy development. Without it, children suffer great harm and are deeply damaged.

The physical and psychological harm

Evidence shows us that children who grow up in institutional care are more likely to suffer from poor health, physical underdevelopment, deterioration in brain growth, and to experience developmental delays and emotional attachment disorders.

Consequently, they have lower intellectual, social and behavioural abilities than children growing up in a family environment. They also suffer the social consequences of having no family support structure and being branded as social outcasts, which often lasts a lifetime.

With the right support, the older children can go on to live fairly normal lives. But most can expect little more than a life of homelessness, loneliness, difficulty developing permanent relationships and turning to substance abuse, crime and self-harm. Many will continue the cycle of placing their children in orphanages, as that is all they all know about childhood and parenting.

For babies and young children under the age of three, the harm is often permanent and irreversible; no amount of physical or psychological treatment will ever restore them. Their future is very bleak.

                                   Every day that a child spends in an orphanage is one day too many. It denies him or her a life in a family and the opportunity to grow up to be a healthy and happy individual. Rather than creating, supporting and funding solutions that keep vulnerable children in orphanages, we need solutions that keep children and families together. Children have the right to a better life than the one an orphanage provides.

WHAT ARE ORPHANAGES?

An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans—children whose biological parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them. Biological parents, and sometimes biological grandparents, are legally responsible for supporting children, but in the absence of these, no named godparent, or other relatives willing to care for the children, they become a ward of the state, and orphanages are one way of providing for their care, housing and education.

It is frequently used to describe institutions abroad, where it is a more accurate term, since the word orphan has a different definition in international adoption. Most children who live in orphanages are not orphans; four out of five children in orphanages having at least one living parent and most having some extended family. Most orphanages have been closed in Europe and North America. There remain a large number of state funded orphanages in the former Soviet Bloc but they are slowly being phased out in favour of direct support to vulnerable families and the development of foster care and adoption services where this is not possible.

Few large international charities continue to fund orphanages; however, they are still commonly founded by smaller charities and religious groups. Especially in developing countries, orphanages may prey on vulnerable families at risk of breakdown and actively recruit children to ensure continued funding. Orphanages in developing countries are rarely run by the state.

Other residential institutions for children can be called group homes, children's homes, refuges,rehabilitation centers, night shelters, or youth treatment centers.

HOW TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC

* We can visit orphanages and conduct an interview with them.
* We can collect pictures and videos from orphanages.
* We can conduct surveys among friends and relatives on this topic.
* We can seek the help of internet.

* We can discuss with our friends.

RELEAVANCE OF THIS TOPIC

       * A huge number of children are reaching the orphanages day by day due to many reasons.

*Even in a place with less area and population we can see the presence of more number of orphanages.

*We can know more about the future of children residing in orphanages.

*We can understand whether orphanages are a boon or bane.