Adopting

If you’re interested in the adoption process please contact Show Hope or Holt International.

Statistics

1. Every 18 seconds another child becomes an orphan, without a mother or father.
2. At any given point there are over 500,000 children in the U.S. Foster Care system.
3. Over 130 million children have lost one or both parents. At least 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both parents
4. 43.4 million orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa, 87.6 million orphans live in Asia, and 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
5. Orphaned children are much more likely than non-orphans to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and in the sex trade
6. If only 7% of the 2 billion Christians in the world would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. We can each do something.
7. There are roughly 1.5 to 2 million child adoptees in America and anywhere from 6 to 10 million adult adoptees.
8. International adoption has actually fallen to numbers that hadn’t been seen in since 1996, with only 11,000 international adoptions taking place in 2010.
9. There are 3316 cases for children in the US waiting for a family just on the adoptuskids.org website alone.  Most of which have multiple siblings.
10. Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa.
11. 143,000,000 Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home
12. Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home
13. In Ukraine and Russia 10% -15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.  60% of the girls are lured into prostitution. 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.
14. Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans
15. Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone)
16. Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…Every YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT of the system.  Every DAY 38,493 children AGE OUT
17. Orphans typically grow up in large state-run homes, which may house over 200 children.
18. In Ukraine, children usually graduate from these institutions between 15 and 16 years old and are turned out, unprepared for life outside the home.
19. According to data released in 2003 as many as eight million boys and girls around the world live in institutional care. Some studies have found that violence in residential institutions is six times higher than violence in foster care, and that children in group care are almost four times more likely to experience sexual abuse than children in family based care.
20. Worldwide an estimated 300 million children are subjected to violence, exploitation and abuse, including the worst forms of child labor in communities, schools and institutions, during armed conflict, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage.
21. Approximately 51,000 children are adopted from the foster system each year.  That leaves 79,000 children annually in the US needing an adoptive family.
22. Several foster care alumni studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, these older youth are often left vulnerable to a host of adverse situations:
    • Outcomes
    • Earned a high school diploma – 54%
    • Obtained a Bachelor’s degree or higher – 2%
    • Became a parent – 84%
    • Were unemployed – 51%
    • Had no health insurance – 30%
    • Had been homeless – 25%
    • Were receiving public assistance – 30%
23. There are more orphans in Sub-Sahara Africa than ALL of the children in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Canada, and Sweden – combined!
24. Orphans in Russia – of whom 95 percent still have a living parent – are exposed to shocking levels of cruelty and neglect. Infants classified as disabled are segregated into “lying-down” rooms, where they are changed and fed but are bereft of stimulation and lacking in medical care.
25. Thousands of children are abandoned to the state at a rate of 113,000 a year for the past two years, up dramatically from 67,286 in 1992. The evidence gathered reveals several systematic disadvantages imposed on young Russian orphans, which violate their fundamental rights to survival and development, and place them as underclass.
26. Russia – one in three orphanage “graduates” is homeless, one in five commits a crime, and one in ten commits suicide.  That means that in 1993, of the 15,000 orphans who “graduated” from Russian orphanages, 1,500 committed suicide that year.
27. China has more than 40,000 orphanages with an estimated 3 million orphans.  Two in five babies entering the system die.  In response to concern of over population in China, the government enforced a “one child” policy.  Compounding the problem is the cultural response to boys and girls.  The birth of a boy is celebrated, while the birth of a girl is not acknowledged.
28. Uganda is about the same size as Oregon (population 3,800,000) 49% of the population of Uganda is under age 15. Highest percentage in the world.  Number of orphans in Uganda: 2,500,000 = 20% of the child population and 2% of the entire population
29. 40% of all American adults (81.5M) have considered adopting a child
30. Of the estimated 276,266 children who exited foster care during 2009, the median amount of time spent in care was 13.7 months, with:
    • 13 percent in care less than 1 month
    • 33 percent in care for 1 to 11 months
    • 24 percent in care for 12 to 23 months