In the last 7 days, I have visited 7 different orphanages in and around Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Unfortunately, that is only the tip of the iceberg. The world knows that Africa has an orphan “endemic”; and this catastrophic problem casts a continent-sized shadow over orphan issues on other continents. I wish this issue was contained. I wish it was that simple. But, sickness, poverty and corruption do not play favorites. I know this to be true in the looks and hugs that I have received this past week.
Here is Cambodia, like many other countries, the kids are the victims of years of generational strongholds and battles. Today, the echoes of war and genocide are reverberating throughout the land of the living. The result? Orphans with no where to go.
Each precious child has his or her own tragic story of how he or she became an orphan. Her parents died of AIDS and she is a living legacy as HIV plagues her little body. His dad died from a landmine that was set during the Khmer Rouge regime and mom died from Malaria. His grandmother cannot take care of him because she has to beg to keep herself alive.
Maybe she finds herself placed into an orphanage or maybe on the streets begging for food. Maybe she finds herself no longer considered a human being, but a thing to be sold. An object that can bring pleasure to another. A lifeless object that can be sold night after night.
Or, maybe, there is a twist in the story. Maybe she is not an orphan at all. Maybe she was stolen or trafficked from loving parents, sold to the Cambodian government and placed up for adoption. Maybe her papers say that both parents died of AIDS; thus, some American family – due to ignorance and false paperwork – thinks that they are rescuing this child from being an orphan. They get her home, only to find out that her parents are alive, and in fact, they are looking for their missing child. Can you even imagine?
It is for this reason, back in 2001, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service suspended adoptions from Cambodia. Other countries, including Australia, Canada and France, followed suit. Due to international pressure, Cambodia has now closed its own border for inter-country adoption. No child can be adopted out of Cambodia.
Child traffickers have jeopardized the lives of thousands of “true” orphans like Srey Mao (seen above).
Orphans are increasing on a daily basis and they have no where to go.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)
As I reunited with orphans I met in Cambodia last year, my interest in Cambodian adoptions increased. A few days earlier, I was able to drive around with Dave Atkins, the founder and director of Asia’s Hope. We visited four of their orphanages that are located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. They also have 5 up in the Battambong province and are building more as funds pour in. They have hundreds of kids on a waiting list – not only are these kids in need of a home, but they are considered “double orphans”…indicating both mom and dad are dead. Even though one of their homes is currently under construction, new kids from the provinces are streaming in almost every other day. And this is just one organization.
“What in the world is going on here?” I asked Dave. Basically, he pointed out that AIDS is creating orphans at an alarming rate. Cambodia has the highest infection rate of any country in Asia. A.I.D.S., landmines, poverty, poor health care, war, childbirth complications and malnutrition have produced a disproportionate number of orphans in Cambodia.
Above that, adoption out of Cambodia has been halted due to corruption. As I illustrated in the story earlier, the speculation that ‘some orphans who are up for adoption are not truly orphans’, has been proven true. Reports have been confirmed that children have been stolen from birthmothers and false documentation has been created. Thus, in attempt to curb child trafficking, one avenue of hope has been curtailed. I do see the moral stance that this decision is based upon, but I also see the effects of closed doors…an increase of internally displaced orphans turning to the streets begging; thus positioning themselves as prime prey for child-sex traffickers.
These same allegations of placing “stolen babies” up for adoption are currently being proved true in other countries as well. Ugly stories from both Guatemala and Vietnam have placed international adoption from these countries in check. Vietnam closed its doors for US adoption two months ago.
Not only does human trafficking choke all hope from its victims, but it jeopardized the hope of thousands around the globe – even the hope of a young couple in America who longs to have a child of their own or a legitimate orphan who longs to have a mom and dad of his/her own…
Yet, I think that a sparkle of hope lies in the very name of Dave’s organization. Asia’s Hope. Providing homes and schools that raise up these precious kids as Jesus-followers within their own country. Brilliant.
Orphans that are on fire for the Lord. That is Asia’s hope.
That is Cambodia’s hope. That is Guatemala’s hope and Vietnam’s hope.
Hope that starts within hearts of the “poor and foolish”. Internal hope that brings external change…
