Apr
13
Written by:
David Strickland
4/13/2007 4:02 PM
Read a blog entry a couple days ago about a family that was attempting to addopt some orphans in Africa. They jumped through all the hopes went through all the red tape, gave a big donation to the orphanage and where preparing to recieve the two new additions to thier home. Only to be told that in fact the children's father was still alive and well. The orphanage had taken the children telling the father they would be raised by rich white men and he would see them in a few years. Needless to say the family was hurt. Furtunately they had the courage to go ahead and try again with a different orphanage.
This blog got me to thinking about the complete lack of regulation on many orphanages throughout the world. In fact the very nature of an orphanage makes it something that's needed the most in some of the least regulated conditions. If the government was organized enough to regulate the orphanages then they would like be able to organize a better system to take care of the children. In trying to resolve this I relised that in the day and age we live in there are a lot of unregulated transactions that people make with confidence every day with people they have never met. When you're in a new town and want to find a good resteraunt a good hotel a good anything one of the first places more and more people are turning is the web. Comments and feedback from others that have already have experiences with the venders or services rate it and post thier comments on hundreds of websites. If you want to see if a particular place is any good it's as simple as a google search. So why not orphanages. Orphanages that people have visited, lived in or worked with that are trust worthy and committed to the wellfare of children should be rewarded. Con artists and profiteers should be exposed so others don't waste thier time, money or resources.
Thus I've established a sort of directory of orphanages. I'll try to get as many orphanages added as I can and encourage others that have experience with a particular orphanage to post commits and rate the orphanage. Hopefully this will provide a realm where the cream can rise. Bigest problem with this will be getting enough user interaction. Guess we'll see how it goes. If nothing else it will at least provide a forum for orphanages to get some more public exposure.
As for our march toward our own orphanage my current contract at work got extended till July 15th we should be flying out July 18th. I'll try and buy plane tickets this weekend.