World's orphans need compassionate action for better lives

Last month, Turkey hosted the International Relief Foundation's 4th Annual Orphans' Meeting, a two-day event attended by 6,000 participants from Muslim countries focused on the plight of the world's orphans.

Tomorrow is the first-ever National Orphan Sunday in our own country, organized by churches to raise awareness of orphans in their local communities. So it is not surprising that today I am thinking about the millions of orphaned children around the world.

Caring for orphans is a tenet of all the Abrahamic faiths; Islam emphasizes the importance of seeing to orphans' needs while treating them with respect.

God warns in the Quran:

Nay! But you treat not the orphans with kindness and generosity (i.e., you neither treat them well nor give them their exact right of inheritance)!

Al-Fajr 89:17

In the 1800s, our own country suffered epidemics that created vast numbers of orphans. In that era, the building of orphanages was usually financed by religious institutions.

By the beginning of the 1900s, there were more than 100,000 children in American orphanages, but many were children of living parents unable to care for them because of poverty, illness or addiction.

Our country has a great history of caring for orphans. Our belief that children fare better in a family environment has gradually brought the closure of orphanages and given rise to foster care and group homes all over North America.

Elsewhere in the world, though, the enormous number of orphaned children makes providing adequate care all but impossible.

In 1993, while delivering Humanitarian Aid to Bosnia, I visited an abandoned school gymnasium and an outdoor camp near Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. They were packed with hundreds, perhaps thousands of orphans, many visibly malnourished. They were living in deplorable conditions. Fear was evident as they stared helplessly into my eyes. The images of those faces have stayed with me.

Today, the scourge of HIV/AIDS and the many military conflicts around the globe have created a pandemic of orphanhood. The numbers are in the millions.

Muslims believe fostering orphans brings the reward of a special place in paradise. The Prophet Muhammad was kind to all, and exceptionally kind to orphans. His own father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was only 6 years old.

Foster parenting rather than adoption is highly encouraged in Islam. We place huge importance on the use of a child's real family name. This is because of many social rules, such as marriage, inheritance and custody, which are based on blood relationships in Islam. Without such rules, orphan siblings separated in childhood could potentially grow up and unknowingly marry each other.

All orphans deserve a safe and secure environment to shield them from the trauma and distress of their young lives, yet in most societies, orphaned children have a weak position. Some parts of the world view orphans as damaged goods.

In China for example, most live their entire lives in orphanages. In the Soviet Union, orphans were historically abandoned to the state, under whose "protection" they were exposed to shocking levels of malice and neglect. Their passports were even stamped with the word "orphan." It was a label they could never escape.

I grew up in a home with three foster children. Our daily sharing with and sacrificing for these children was evidence of my family's commitment to them.

Today, many organizations work to connect families with orphans. My mother currently sponsors two orphan children overseas. They write her letters and send simple drawings, which she cherishes and happily shares with her grandchildren and close friends.

I'm thankful for all efforts to focus attention on the plight of the millions of orphans around the world, since many people do not recognize the magnitude of the problem.

Making a difference in some small way to help an orphan is easy, and it can enhance the life of the giver as well as that of the child getting help.

Compassion is the hallmark of most faiths. Putting that compassion to work through fostering, mentoring or being a Big Brother or Big Sister to an orphan can be rewarding beyond measure.

Aziz Junejo is host of "Focus on Islam," a weekly cable-television show, and a frequent speaker on Islam. Readers may send feedback to faithcolumns@seattletimes.com