I
LOVE my classes (most of the time)!!
In one class I'm learning about abuse in families, which I find sad but interesting. One day in that class I showed up and we had a speaker on human-trafficking. Needless to say I was pretty excited! We also learn about attachment issues that people have when they have undergone trauma.
In my speech class I got to give speeches about why teenage birth mothers do or don't choose adoption and how to become a foster parent. My latest assignment a persuasive speech and i choose the topic of why help ORPHANS IN AFRICA!! :) My class is well acquainted with what I want to do with my life.
For every speech you must write an outline with every word you want to say. So I thought I would post my latest assignment as just an informational on orphans in africa if you would like to read up on them.
I. United Nations Child’s Fund, better known as UNICEF, is an international organization created by the United Nations to support children in need all over the world. In 2009, they published a report indicating stating that there are around 48 million orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A. 48 million is the combined population of New York State, Texas, and Tennessee
B. These orphans face many extra challenges in life.
1. Orphans are likely to have many health problems.
a. Malabika Sarker conducted a study in Uganda that was published in an international medical journal. This study showed that in a two week period orphans were sick more often than non-orphans, but did not seek medical treatment more than non-orphans.
b. When discussing this study with Karissa Hrbek, a fellow college student who spent a month working with orphans in Africa, she said that many orphans face mal-nutrition. Although they get one or two meals a day, it is usually corn mush, which has no nutrients, so their immune system is very weak. Therefore, they are more likely to die from a common cold or diarrhea.
2. According to Emma Guest, a woman who moved from England to South Africa about 15 years ago, orphans are deeply impacted by AIDS. Guest published a book in 2000 that contained stories of people she has met who are orphans or have interacted with orphans in some way. After more research she published another a few years ago. In her second book, Guest discusses how many parents die due to AIDS and their children are left homeless and forced to live on the street. These children have become known as “street children”.
a. A man who runs a non-profit organization that provides housing for street children interviewed in Guest’s book says that many street children die young answer they have no one to care for them. Some are raped, or forced into prostitution in order to survive.
b. Most street children sleep with burning sticks to keep them warm at night and they can leave burn marks.
c. Many street children are forced into child labor such as human-trafficking, household servant, or working in factories.
II. You are probably wondering how a college student can possibly help orphans living on the streets in a continent that is thousands of miles away. There are actually quite a few ways you can help.
A. You can sponsor a child, which means sending money once a month to support an orphan in Africa.
1. The Raining Season is an organization that has an orphanage in Sierra Leone, Africa. (SHOW IMAGE) Their website provides information about four different ways to sponsor a child through this organization.
a. You can provide a child with medical care for $30 a month
i. This provides daily vitamin shakes for nutrition
ii. This also includes any medication they might need and the chance to be seen by the pediatrician who comes once a month.
b. You can also provide funds for a child to get 3 meals a day for $40 a month.
c. For $40 a month you can also give a child school supplies and help pay for qualified teachers who are trained to work specifically with these children who have been orphaned.
d. For just $20 a month you can provide a child with clothes and toiletry items.
e. What is unique about this organizations sponsorship is that you can Skype with the child you are sponsoring. You can talk with them and see exactly what your money is going towards.
2. You may be thinking that you are a poor college student and are thousands of dollars in debt; you cannot afford to support a child.
a. What if you got a few of your friends together and that if you each gave $5 or $10 a month.
b. You could also cut out something like coffee on campus or eating out one night a week and set that money aside for child sponsorship.
3. By sponsoring these children in orphanages, you are allowing the organization to use their funds to buy more beds or give more to those living on the streets that they do not have room to provide housing for.
The fact that I can talk on a subject I'm passionate about and be able to see how i might someday apply what I'm learning in my classes to actually caring for orphans, makes the thousands of dollars I'm spending to sit in classroom for 4 years a bit more bearable :)
