From the Director's Notebook

Over the years I have had the opportunity to observe firsthand the increasingly desperate plight of orphans and vulnerable children in a number of countries including Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan and Ukraine, as well as India and Thailand. While I have been able to help large numbers of children, my efforts so far are completely insignificant in the face of the needs of the world's 150,000,000 orphans. This number grows dramatically every year.

During my career, I have learned a number of things. One is that when most people become aware of the magnitude of this crisis and understand its human dimension, they want to help. Some want to personally adopt orphans from other countries and bring them into their family. Others, who are not in a position to do that, will contribute generously to helping orphans and vulnerable children who must remain in their home country, where adequate care and family life are just not an option.

The second thing I have learned is that it does not take very much money to make a huge difference in the life of an orphan or an at risk child. The amount that can make a difference is often insignificant to each of us when we take into consideration the living standards those of us who live in industrialized nations enjoy and even take for granted.

Third, when enough people get together and pool and coordinate their resources and efforts, the collective impact is always much greater and more effective than the efforts of acting individually.

Finally, those of us who have personal experience with international adoption and helping orphans and vulnerable children in-country have learned a great deal over the years. That experience and insight is invaluable to those who are contemplating adoption or who just want to feel confident that the money they contribute to help children is used effectively and efficiently. Yet there really has been no good way to make this collective expertise available to those who benefit from it.

Families Saving Orphans has been organized to accomplish all this and more. With the resource of the Internet and the network of people we are setting up around the world with a proven track record in helping these children, Families Saving Orphans will make a substantial and critical difference in the lives of many, many children.

For the past 16 years my personal passion has been to help these children. Families Saving Orphans is uniquely positioned to provide the help that these children need. We will be opening countless hearts and minds to the enormous value of international adoption, while still helping provide successful child welfare programs within sending countries. I know that we will quickly become the premier resource for all aspects of child welfare and adoption. We are developing exciting programs that will provide tested ways for you, your adopted children, and all concerned families and governments to become directly involved in helping these children.

Please explore the many ways we provide on this Web site for you to get involved. Subscribe to the "Orphan Watch" newsletter so you can keep up with our activities and learn about the new ways you can help. Send us your stories. Give your adopted children a way to give back through the Orphans Saving Orphans project (LINK to Orphans Saving Orphans page) and help spread the word to others who will also be willing to help these children.

Please join us in helping in whatever way you can to provide life, hope and a future for as many of these 150,000,000 children as we can.

Morgan Bates

Director