Take a minute to read through this carefully.  It is mind boggling…

In Central and Eastern European countries alone (this would include Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania, etc, but NOT Russia), there are more than 1.5 MILLION CHILDREN who have been abandoned by their families for one reason or another and are living in “public care” (that’s the nice way to put it).  If statistically, 1 out of every 733 live births results in a child with Down syndrome, that means at any given time there are 2,046 children with Down syndrome who need families.  THAT’S JUST IN EUROPE!!  Some do not survive because of serious medical complications…some do not survive because of lack of medical attention, lack of food, lack of LOVE. 

In Russia, there are over 700,000 children waiting for families, meaning at least 955 children with Down syndrome wait, languishing.  In ASIA (China, Hong Kong, Korea, India), there are 3,572,000 orphans, with nearly 5000 children with Down syndrome who are unwanted.  Many of those children are killed at birth.    The “lucky” ones end up in orphanages and foster care situations.

In the United States alone, 137 million people claim to be Christians of some denomination.  If only 1% of the Christians in this country adopted just ONE CHILD, 1.37 MILLION CHILDREN from abroad would have loving, Christian families to grow up in.  Of those 1.37 million, 1,869 of those children have DOWN SYNDROME.

 

Region Number of Total Orphans Potential Number of children with Down Syndrome Number who could be saved by only 1% of the Christian population in the US
Eastern Europe 1.5 million 2046 205
Asia 3,572,000 4873 487
Russia 700,000 955 96

(statistics from Families of Promise, 2000)

 

If you’re just not able to adopt, or you don’t feel led to adopt at this time, you can still save a child’s life. Help us help other families bring these children home!

Please sponsor a Waiting Child or family in process today.