How Childern Become Orphans

In most countries on the African continent, the two main causes are AIDS and war. AIDS alone will cause 30 million children to become orphans in the next decade. In countries like Russia, poverty and closely related drug and alcohol abuse are the main causes of children becoming orphans. Many of the children in this country are social orphans. This means that one or both parents have been legally stripped of their parental rights due to abuse or neglect or they have given up their rights to the children because they are unwilling or unable to care for them. There are approximately 3 million children living underground in sewers in Russia who fit into this category but are not within their official database. In India, again it is poverty, which is also compounded by the Caste system, that keeps those in poverty from getting out of poverty and keeps those with the means to help from providing much needed assistance.