As of now, there are an estimated 132 million orphaned children in the world . This means that nine out of every hundred children do not have an adult guardian. And the smaller the children, the greater their vulnerability.

These children deserve a better life so that they too can enjoy the comfort of going to sleep with a full stomach, of having access to medicines and education and a roof over their heads— all of the things that we, in the west, take for granted.

Almost 750 Children Are Orphaned Every Day

These kids are prone to all kinds of abuse, but what is worse is that no one cares. They have to scramble for the smallest morsel of food. Even if they survive such a traumatic childhood, they will grow up without the life skills that only high-quality education can give them.

The illiterate and the destitute will join the teeming gangs of brigands and outlaws in the outback and thus perpetuate the same vicious cycle by abusing other kids.

But if they were given a chance, the odds are that they will be able to become model citizens who will inspire the whole community around them. This way, helping even a single orphan is analogous to helping an entire community.

The worst affected orphans and their widowed mothers are families caught in the internecine civil wars that plague the region. Ruthless militants randomly kidnap kids and turn them into child soldiers and sex slaves, even as their widowed mothers look for them helplessly. In order to keep them safe, they walk for miles in the forests every single day. Those that drop from exhaustion become easy prey for all sorts of predators.

Picture, if you can, the raw terror of a mother who has to run and hide in a jungle full of wild animals, just to protect her children from a fate far worse than death.

But it does not have to be this way at all. This is because it is easy to provide them with the tools necessary for survival— a small school, some clean clothes and a couple of meals in a day. That is all that is needed per child. Apart from that, opening even a dispensary in a village can often mean the difference between life and death for these kids. This is because the illnesses that we easily eliminate with a few pills, can turn into life threatening epidemics in Burkina Faso and other Sub-Saharan countries.

Conclusion

If we all to work together, hand-in-hand, we can bring about a miracle and provide the orphans and their widowed mothers with the care, love and attention that they so richly deserve. You can help us relieve them from their squalor and misery by donating generously to the Orphan Life Foundation.