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What does it mean to be an Orphan?

What does it mean to be an orphan? Many people feel orphaned at different times in their lives (pic.1); however, there is a vast difference between feeling like an orphan and being orphaned - abandoned. An orphan is a child who has lost both its parents because of death or bereft of both their care; the child has no parents regardless of the circumstances, the child is an orphan. Children are allowed to consider themselves adults only when they are eighteen - that is, when they can vote, because they can think for themselves and take care of themselves. Before that they are not able to look after themselves. Consider the orphan who one day has the security and structure of a home, parent(s) and family and the next day has none of these. The floor hasn't just dropped; it has disappeared. Wiped out - nothing. How do children grieve? Children understand the circumstances they are thrown into. Children are tremendously honest and accurate in their perception of the situation and adults around them; it is a pure and un-jaded perception. Again, children have the understanding but they do not have the skill to describe it nor do they know how to talk about their grief.

Orphans in the modern society
The Facts on Today's Orphan Crisis

Throughout the world tragedy separates parentsfrom children leaving the broken lives of little ones who need caring people to intervene and change their paths. As the love of people grows colder, stories of terrible circumstances are everywhere. How bad is it? Here are some facts to keep us informed:

  • Nearly 144 million children across the world are orphans.
  • Every 2 seconds, another orphan dies from malnutrition.
  • 87.6 million Orphans live in Asia. 43.4 million Orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa. 12.4 million Orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • 6,000 children are orphaned by AIDS every day. That is newly orphaned child every 14 seconds.
  • Around the global, 15,200,000 children have been orphaned by the AIDS crisis. If all these children held hands, they would stretch across the United States. By 2011, this virtual chain will reach around the world.
  • Malnutrition plays a part in more than half of all child deaths worldwide. Every year, malnutrition is associated with the deaths of five million children under the age of five.
  • Even more often, malnutrition cripples children's growth, renders them susceptible to disease, dulls their intellects, and diminishes their motivation and their productivity.
  • India has more orphans than any other nation, totaling 35,000,000 in 2003; nearly 1 out of 10 of India's children are orphans.
  • In India, one out of two children under the age of 5 is underweight.
  • Millions of children suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, when the body lacks essential minerals and vitamins. These deficiencies can lead to severe mental or physical impairment, life-threatening anemia, lowered productivity, blindness, a weakened immune system.
  • 854 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union.
  • By 2020, southern Africa will lose one out of every five agricultural workers to AIDS. With a shrinking labor force, food is harder and harder to come by in areas that need it most.
  • In like sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 20% of the adult population has been impacted by AIDS, orphaned children not only lose their parents but also teachers, health workers and civil servants who die of the disease.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest portion of children living as orphans. In 2003, there were 43,400,000 children with no living parent. This number represents 12% of the region's children.
  • It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 18 million children – more than all the children in the United Kingdom, will have lost at least one parent to AIDS.
  • Every week, AIDS claims as many lives as American fatalities in the Vietnam War.
  • By 2010, the total number of orphans, from all causes, in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase to 50,000,000.

Orphans in Russia

There are over 1 million children living in institutions in Russia today. (Many believe this number to be closer to 2 million.) An addition of approximately 1.5 – 2 million is living on the streets. The situation for orphan children and children at risk is becoming worse and the number of these kids entering into the orphanage is on the rise. Survival statistics for orphans once they leave the orphanages are abysmal.

Many directors, as well as officials in the department of Education for St Petersburg, claim that only around 10 – 20% of orphans "survive" within a few years of leaving the orphanages. By "survive" they meant not becoming a drug addict, a prostitute, a homeless person, or put in prison after they leave the orphanage.

According to the Russian Procuracy General, around 15,000 orphans "graduate" from the orphanages every year. Within a few years of graduation, of the 15,000 graduates, 30% will be unemployed, 35% will be homeless, 20% will have criminal records, and 10% will commit suicide. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia explodes (AIDS in Russia is growing faster than in any other country in the world), orphans become an increasingly at-risk group

Orphans in literature

Orphaned characters are extremely common as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature. The lack of parents leaves the characters to pursue more interesting and adventurous lives, by freeing them from familial obligations and controls, and depriving them of more prosaic lives. It creates characters that are self-contained and introspective and who strive for affection.

Orphans can metaphorically search for self-understanding through attempting to know their roots. Parents can also be allies and sources of aid for children, and removing the parents makes the character's difficulties more severe. Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from the necessity to depict such an irrelevant relationship; if one parent-child relationship is important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary relationship. All these characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors.

Orphans are common in fairy tales, such as most variants of Cinderella. A number of well-known authors have written books featuring orphans. Examples from classic literature include Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books. Among more recent authors, A.J. Cronin, Lemony Snicket, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, as well as some less well-known authors of famous orphans like Little Orphan Annie have used orphans as major characters. One recurring storyline has been the relationship that the orphan can have with an adult from outside his or her immediate family.

Cinderella

"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a well-known classic folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances which suddenly change to remarkable fortune. The word "cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes are unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. The still-popular story of Cinderella continues to influence popular culture internationally, lending plot elements, allusions, and tropes to a wide variety of media.

Oliver Twist (Charles John Huffam Dickens)

In Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism, and merciless satire as a way to describe the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England and to criticise the harsh new Poor Laws. Oliver, an innocent child, is trapped in a world where his only options seem to be the workhouse, Fagin's thieves, a prison or an early grave. From this unpromising industrial/institutional setting, however, a fairy tale also emerges: In the midst of corruption and degradation, the essentially passive Oliver remains pure-hearted; he steers away from evil when those around him give in to it; and, in proper fairy-tale fashion, he eventually receives his reward—leaving for a peaceful life in the country, surrounded by kind friends. On the way to this happy ending, Dickens explores the kind of life an orphan, outcast boy could expect to lead in 1830s London.

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism. It is a novel considered ahead of its time. In spite of the dark, brooding elements, it has a strong sense of right and wrong, of morality at its core. There are several Christian aspects underlying the plot that mold its character and essence.

Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters; most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on certain copies are liable to take up another 100). The original was published in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38.

Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray.

Conclusions

Summing up, the problem of orphans is a globule problem for all over the world. The number of children in the world that have lost their mother or father, are parentless, or have been abandoned is in the tens of millions. Chronic disease, bloodshed, horrific natural disasters, severe poverty, famine, unsanitary water sources, restrictive population controls, and societal devaluation of female children, have all contributed to this global tragedy of monumental proportions.

Orphans and vulnerable children are deprived of their first line of protection – their parents.

Orphanhood in itself is not a trauma, but through concomitant factors it may have a traumatic effect on the orphan. Some special factors concerning basic problems of orphanhood are: idealization of the image of the lost parent, guilt feelings toward the dead parent, especially if his or her death occurred during the climax of the child's Oedipus complex, and hostility toward the surviving parent who may be felt to be responsible for the loss.

Identification with the dead parent may be the cause of hypochondriacal and phobic fears, or the loss may be the starting point for brooding about sickness and death, resulting in anxiety. Ambivalent feelings toward the dead parent may disturb all subsequent relationships with other people. Feelings of insecurity caused by the loss of the parent may develop into a clinging behavior, or into withdrawal and an overstressed emotional independence.

Although the reasons vary greatly, separation from parents and family is usually detrimental for the overall well being and development of the child. In addition, placement in institutions is often not the best solution for separated children. Children without the guidance and protection of their primary caregivers are often more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking, discrimination or other abuses. In conflict situations, involuntary separation from both family and community protection, sometimes across national borders, greatly increases the child's risk of exposure to violence, physical abuse, exploitation and even death. Surviving children face malnutrition, illness, physical and psychosocial trauma, and impaired cognitive and emotional development.

Unaccompanied girls are at especially high risk of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, unaccompanied boys are at high risk of forced or 'voluntary' participation in violence and armed conflict.

  • In Central and Eastern Europe alone, almost 1.5 million children live in public care.
  • In Russia, the annual number of ‘children left without parental care’ has more than doubled over the last 10 years, despite falling birth rates.
  • Conflict has orphaned or separated 1 million children from their families in the 1990s.
  • An estimated two to five per cent of the refugee population is unaccompanied children.
  • An estimated 143 million children are orphaned by one or both parents. (‘Children on the Brink 2004. A Joint Report of New Orphan Estimates and a Framework for Action. UNICEF/UNAIDS/USAID. July 2004).
  • The number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is expected to jump to more than 25 million. In 12 African countries, projections show that orphans will comprise at least 15 per cent of all children under 15 years of age by 2010.

Current approaches to dealing with orphanhood emphasize the role of families, communities, institutions and foster homes. There are different strategies to assist orphans and vulnerable children in the context of poverty. These are:

  • to strengthen and support the capacity of families to protect and care for their children;
  • to mobilize and strengthen community-based responses;
  • to strengthen the capacity of children and young people to meet their own needs;
  • to ensure that governments protect the most vulnerable children and provide essential services;
  • to create an enabling environment for poor children and families.

Although these strategies are not neatly separate from one another, their implementation in diverse social, economic, cultural and ideological systems reflects the powerful nature of donor-driven development supported by the international aid community. In this section, I will explore four different approaches of orphan care – familial, community-based, institutional and rights-based – whose strategies and rise to prominence reflect the philosophies, premises and specific policies of different actors.