Orphanages. There's Not Really Much Else to Say.

Here in New Jersey, in the United States, there is an orphanage that's named Saint Peter's Orphanage. It's an all boys orphanage. "St. Peter’s Orphanage offers a residential treatment program for abused, abandoned or neglected adolescent boys (aged 9-17), with mild to moderate emotional, behavioral, social and/or learning problems. The New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (D.Y.F.S.) refers all placements. St. Peter’s philosophy is to provide specialized care, including on-site therapeutic counseling, designed to prepare the boys to become productive and self-sustaining citizens, while maintaining a warm and supportive, family-like atmosphere." There is a photo album on the web page that shows all the boys smiling an doing activities that they love.

Now, let's look into an article about an orphanage in China that I found. "The orphanage staff call her room the "dying room", and they have abandoned here for the very same reasons her parents abandoned her shortly after she was born. She is a girl." This orphanage just happens to be an all girls orphanage, but not intentionally. The surplus of baby girls who are abandoned by their parents right after birth is astounding. And all these orphanages don't have enough money to support all of the baby girls that are picked up off the streets and need a "home." Later on in this same article that I linked above, I found some more disturbing facts. "An official of the orphanage tells Blewett that last year, the orphanage had some 400 inmates. They were kept five to a bed in one airless room. The summer temperatures soared to around 100 degrees. In a couple of weeks, 20 percent of the babies died. 'If 80 children died last summer, there should be 320 left,' Blewett says to one of the assistants, 'but there don't appear to be more than a couple of dozen children here. Where are the others?' The girl replies; 'They disappear. If I ask where they go, I am just told they die. That's all. I am afraid to ask any more.'" This is not what I expected to find out about the orphanages when I first started researching the One Child Policy. The problem is, I did find it. And it's the truth.