How do children become orphans?
It is a sad and unfortunate fact that life is not perfect and whilst we would all like to know that children are bought into the world in a loving, secure and happy family this is not always the case.
There are a number of varying reasons why a child would lose their parental care:
a. In very small cases it is due to tragic accidents;
b. To a larger extent through wars or conflicts that continue in many countries;
c. Poverty and a lack of social security infrastructure mean that many parents are simply unable to afford to bring up their children;
d. Some government policies, like China's one child policy, mean that children get abandoned for fear of reprisals;
e. Illness is a factor, the child's own if, for example, born with congenital diseases he/she may be left at the hospital, or the illness of the parents - no more prevalent than with the scourge of AIDS in sub Saharan Africa;
f. Massive natural disasters, like earth quakes and tsunami, have destroyed thousands of lives and created thousands of orphans;
g. Parental abuse, or neglect, where for the child's protection, parental rights have been relinquished and they are taken into care.
The largest number of children without parental care today, are those whose parents cannot look after them, or who have taken away from their parents by the state. It is this category that make up the majority of the children growing up without parental care today.
Poverty, drug abuse and alcoholism are present day social ills that have put unbearable pressure on families.
