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9-11 affected many people in many different ways. Heart for Africa is one way one person dealt with that fateful day. Her name is Janine Maxwell and her story is "Its Not Okay With Me". Her story is gut wrenching and mind boggling. My story that follows is a happy, travel adventure for your reading pleasure. I hope you will read both stories, mine for entertainment and her's as a call to action. I hope you visit the website www.heartforafrica.org and make a difference. We are so lucky, so fortunate, to live in the USA. Please don't take that for...

Roseanne said, "do you not know that the African daughter you hold in every picture had parents who suffered and died because of the Republican party's worldwide economic assault on Africa over the last few decades since Reagan?"

You want to build anything in Silicon Valley - a company, a career, a reputation - it's all about networking. Eagle Scout project? Yep. Networking. You need your venture capitalist, your Fortune 1000 company founder and some good-hearted friends and neighbors. Ask Tad Malone, a Homestead High School junior, who took on a project that, looking back, seems slightly insane even to him. "Kids needed help," he says, "so I thought I'd help." Kids in Africa. Orphan kids that Tad met on a family trip in 2005 to a place called Children's Town in Zambia. The 300 children had people...

On a bare patch of ground outside the entrance to Sadr general hospital, 15 women clad from head to foot in black squatted in a sandstorm, wailing and waiting for their dead. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled and the women’s robes were spattered with mud falling from a sky filled with rain and sand, but they did not notice. “Ya’mma, Ya’ba” (“Oh mother, oh father”), cried Amira Zaydan, a 45-year-old spinster, slapping her face and chest as she grieved for her parents Jaleel, 65, and Hanounah, 60, whose house had exploded after apparently being hit by an American rocket. “Where are...

In the village of Sanhe, Hubei province, the police interrupted the Christmas festivities of a little orphanage run by a famous Christian leader, who has been arrested 12 times for his leading role in the life of China's unauthorised domestic churches. Sanhe (AsiaNews) - Police in the central province of Hubei arrested, on Christmas Eve, a group of orphans and Christian volunteers who were preparing to celebrate the holiday with them. The agents confined the children to a hotel, and "convinced" the owner of the land that the orphanage stands on to evict the renters. This is the charge of...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Jan. 4, 2008 – Afghan national security forces and coalition forces delivered more than a ton of food, clothes and toys to the nearly 380 children of Shahid Ali Ahad Khan Karzi Orphanage and school in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, Dec. 30. A coalition forces soldier greets a group of Afghan boys at the Sahid Ali Ahad Khan Karzi Orphanage and school in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, Dec. 30, 2007. U.S. Army photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The children, ranging in age from 6 to 13, received clothes and shoes to help them endure...

BAGHDAD: The shocking pictures of neglect that emerged from a grisly state-run Baghdad orphanage this week revealed the Iraqi government's inability to care for some of its most vulnerable citizens. With four years of war having cannibalized much of the Iraqi government, volunteers have begun providing vital social services at their own expense, relying on the generosity of friends and neighbors. The images of the inside of the Al-Hanan orphanage were disquieting even by Iraqi standards: two dozen emaciated children, some tied to cribs, others writhing in their own waste and some appearing, at first glance, to be dead. US...

CBS's Lara Logan Follows Up on U.S. Soldier Orphanage Rescue Posted by Justin McCarthy on June 21, 2007 - 13:23. After reporting on the compassionate U.S. soldier rescue of abused Iraqi orphans, CBS’s Lara Logan ran a follow up story on the June 21 edition of "The Early Show." To her credit, Logan continued to defend the soldiers. She noted that an Army captain went "back to check on the 24 boys he and his soldiers rescued" and "thanks to these soldiers...the boys’ lives were saved."Upon reporting that the Iraqi labor and social affairs minister accused Lara Logan of reporting...

India urges Britain to adopt its orphans NEW DELHI, April 8 (UPI) -- India is struggling with a surplus of abandoned and unwanted children and is urging people in Britain and other Western countries to adopt its orphans. The Sunday Times of London says India is renewing its efforts to save its children from a life of poverty and deprivation by finding homes for them in Europe and the United States. India is estimated to have more than 11 million abandoned children, and the Times reported that the number of newborn babies abandoned at adoption facilities is continuing to rise....

RYBINSK, RUSSIA – Children pour out of Rybinsk's orphanage No. 72, laughing and waving, when the Murziki pull up in their mud-spattered convoy of cars. The kids know many of these adults from distant Moscow by name, and they hurry to help unload the cars, stacked with boxes of toys, sports equipment, and coats - as well as cutlery and a new VCR with a selection of cartoons, needs the Murziki carefully noted on their last visit. The Murziki tell the kids that they come from the mythical country of Murlandia, a kind of cross between Neverland and Santa's Village....

Pledges to the "Grandfather Frost" campaign continue Exactly one week ago the newspaper 'Noviy Vestnik' declared the start of a New Year's charity drive. We proposed that all those who wished to feel like a real Grandfather Frost could do so by making the wishes of orphans at the Home for Handicapped Children come true. The results of the first week of the campaign has been stunning. We must admit, we did not expect such success. Our editorial staff has been visited by a dozen Grandfather Frosts. The Bogatyr food company brought in a large gift. Reader Irina Reznikova...

12/4/2006 - MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- The Mehtar Lam Provincial Reconstruction Team paid an unexpected visit to a girl's orphan school Nov. 27 to donate three trailers full of supplies, including items to help with the approaching winter. The staff of Rosantoon Orphan Girl's School in Mehtar Lam City welcomed the team and helped coalition troops unload the winter clothing, school supplies, hygiene products, food and other items. An entire trailer of food was an important part of the delivery, said Army Capt. Bernice Logan, Mehtar Lam PRT civil affairs officer. "Some of the girls only eat one meal...

There are no orphan homes in Western Europe and the USA - there are queues for abandoned children. Will it be harder or easier for foreigners to adopt a Russian child since custody regulations in Russia have changed? The rules concerning activity of foreign organizations dealing with children adoption have recently been amended which caused a confrontation of opinions: some consider the new regulations more liberal, others claim it’s nothing but toughened demands.

Earthquake orphans 'in hands of jihadists' By Isambard Wilkinson in Muzaffarabad (Filed: 07/10/2006) Charities linked to jihadist groups have been using humanitarian aid operations to extend their influence over children orphaned by last year's earthquake in north Pakistan. Jemima Khan, a Unicef ambassador, visits a temporary school in the border region devastated by the Pakistan-Kashmir earthquake Contrary to government rules that earthquake orphans must be cared for only by the state or relatives, large numbers have been taken into care by religious charities and madrassa Islamic schools. A senior cleric, Qazi Mahmood-ul Hassan, who runs the Jamia Dar-Uloom al Islamia...

POHANG, South Korea (Aug 18, 2006) -- Marines and sailors with 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and 3rd Marine Logistics Group visited the House of Love orphanage Aug. 9 to spend time with the children and reach out to the local community during Exercise Ulchi Focus Lens 2006.The visit to the orphanage is a 1st MAW tradition that dates back to 1951.In 1951, Marines and Navy chaplains noticed an estimated 10,000 children in the Pohang area who were orphaned during the Korean War. They took the children to local orphanages, which quickly became overloaded. To assure the childrens' survival, the 1st...

The National Home is a multi-faceted facility created to care for the developmental, social and spiritual needs of the children and families of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Services are also available for children of active duty military personnel. Our facility is not an orphanage, but a neighborhood of custom homes, service buildings and recreational land administered by a highly devoted staff and fully integrated into its surrounding community. The Veterans of Foreign Wars established the National Home in 1925 to care for the children and families of our nation’s veterans. Located on 629 acres in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, the...

Moscow SINCE my daughter Maya was born 10 months ago, I've noted that many of my Russian friends are more likely to express amazement than to share my joy. "Do you really like fussing around with kids?" asked one of them, a television journalist, with sincere incredulity. It might be that this notion of children as a burden, as an unnecessary bother, is the psychological reason for the catastrophic decline in Russian birth rates (the average woman has 1.34 children, and for every 16 Russians who died in 2004, only 10.4 babies were born). It's hard enough to get by...

Abandoned: the Mexican orphans of the rush to cross US border By James Hider in San Andreas Nicolas Bravo (Filed: 21/05/2006) When Alexis Silva Carreno was nine years old, his father left Mexico to find work 800 miles away across the US border in Houston, Texas. Alexis was devastated and begged his father not to go. It was not until his mother also headed north that the boy's entire world collapsed. "She didn't even leave any kitchen utensils, she took everything, everything. She left us to be street kids. She forgot her children," he said, sitting dejected in his classroom...

U.S. Marines assigned to the 4th Provisional Security Company, stationed with Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa in Djibouti, work together to clean and rebuild a soccer field outside Camp Lemonier. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa photo U.S. Marines Help Rebuild Djiboutian Soccer Field The project, which involved removing trash, smoothing and marking the field and adding nets to goal posts, was time well spent, according to the Marines. By U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Omar Villarreal Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, May 18, 2006 — Fifty U.S. Marines with the 4th Provisional...

U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Tammara Wipf, Company A, 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, visits with a young Iraqi orphan girl during a civil affairs mission at the Salhiya Orphanage in the Karadah District of central Baghdad, March 6, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jason Dangel U.S. Troops Deliver Essentials, Toys to Iraqi Orphans Working in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion delivered approximately $500 worth of supplies to the Salhiya Orphanage. By Multinational Force-Iraq BAGHDAD, March 9, 2006 — U.S. soldiers from the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, currently attached to the 4th...

Chinese Orphans Kidnapped and Sold US Embassy Presses For Investigation of Liang Guihong Case Authorities Say Group Sold 78 Children Last Year -Many for US FamiliesA mainland China court last month found 56 year-old Liang Guihong, an orphanage director and eight other individuals guilty of kidnapping and sale of children. Liang was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The prosecution pointed out that most of the babies (last year alone there were 78) were placed with overseas families.There was rebuttal testimony that Liang Guihong and others only delivered abandoned babies to the orphanage, helping find homes for them and that...

EDINBURGH, January 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A decision by Scottish lawmakers to allow same-sex couples to adopt has been condemned by Roman Catholic prelate Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who warned that the measure would make Scotland’s orphans “guinea pigs in some distorted social experiment.” The Cardinal has asked that Catholic adoption agencies be allowed a “conscience clause” to exempt them from the ruling, so as not to be forced to place children in homes with same-sex guardians. O’Brien is worried that Catholic adoption agencies would eventually be forced into placing children with same-sex couples. Galloway Bishop John Cunningham, chair of the...

Trafficking of children reported in Pakistan ___ ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- She is a girl without an identity, whisked here by helicopter from the earthquake zone, one of the devastating temblor's anonymous -- and most vulnerable -- victims. The teenager, her hair cut short for head surgery, cries uncontrollably and cannot remember her name or that of her village. Hospital workers call her Aisha. ''She's alone in the world. She doesn't recognize anybody," said Dr. Robina Quiesha, of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. ''I really don't know what will become of her." A magnitude-7.6 earthquake rocked this region Oct. 8....

Six-year-old Aisha loves the orange blouse and jeans given to her by the kind woman who rescued her from the chaos of the Kashmir earthquake. She snuggles up to her, trying to forget the devastation of her village home and the deaths of her parents 15 days ago. What Aisha does not know is that the woman, Kausar, is a prostitute who has bought her from relatives for 50,000 rupees (£500) and plans to put her to work in the sex trade as soon as she reaches puberty. Aisha is not alone. According to welfare agencies, many of the hundreds...

BATON ROUGE, La. — In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love. Thousands of human stories have...

Innovative troops turn scrap metal into playground swings and slides for the children of a Kirkuk orphanage. FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARRIOR, Iraq, Sept. 1, 2005 — Children at one Kirkuk orphanage now have a playground full of new equipment, thanks to the efforts of the headquarters company of the 116th Brigade Combat Team’s Task Force 2-116 Armor who installed a custom-built playground set Aug. 19. While doing an assessment of a Kirkuk orphanage back in March, the unit noticed run-down playground equipment that was inadequate for the number of children. One metalworker in the group, U.S. Army Sgt. Fenton Doyle,...

HARARE, Zimbabwe, JUNE 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Zimbabwe's bishops are increasingly concerned over the government's lack of respect for basic human rights. Since the 1980 elections that followed the ousting of the white-led regime, the country has been ruled by President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF government. The parliamentary elections held last March 31 confirmed the ZANU-PF's control. The March elections, however, were neither "free nor fair," observed a recent report by the nongovernmental organization International Crisis Group. A June 7 report by the group, titled "Post-Election Zimbabwe: What Next?", commented that the elections were manipulated "through a range of legal...

WASHINGTON — Escalating its courtship of a politically powerful constituency, the Bush administration is teaming up with some of the nation's best-known and most influential black clergy to craft a new role for U.S. churches in Africa. The effort was launched last week, when more than two dozen leading African American religious figures met privately with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior White House officials at the State Department, according to administration officials and meeting participants. The hourlong session focused largely on how the administration's faith-based initiative could be expanded to combat the spread of HIV and provide help...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 17, 2005 — One of the easiest and most effective ways U.S. soldiers can win the hearts and minds of Afghans is through the children. Troops from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Combined Joint Task Force 76, got a chance to win the hearts and minds of young Afghans May 9 during a trip to an orphanage and an all-girl school. The troops, most of whom are based out of the Southern European Task Force on Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy, visited the side-by-side installations in Charikar, a village near Bagram Airfield. While there they handed out...

Continuing a 51-year relationship with a local orphanage, Marines and sailors at Camp Fuji plan to welcome almost 40 children Sunday for an Easter celebration. About 22 children and four teachers from Seishin Orphanage in Tanashi City, with 11 children and their parents from Idu Mama and several children of base employees, have been invited to the Easter egg hunt, egg toss and a visit from the Easter bunny (Gunnery Sgt. Brent Dorrough), said Fuji’s chaplain, Lt. j.g. Ned Alderman. “Our Marines love being with the kids,” Alderman said. The base welcomes the orphanage children to events throughout the year....

U.S. Soldier Adopts Disabled Iraqi Boy - In 2003, while volunteering at an orphanage for disabled children in Baghdad, National Guard Capt. Scott Southworth met Ala'a, a young Iraqi boy who could not walk because of cerebral palsy. Now Ala'a, nearly 10, lives with Southworth in Wisconsin, and a doctor recently gave the pair great news: Ala'a soon may be able to walk. 'Back to Reality' On his tour of duty in Iraq, Southworth, now 32, was helping to train Iraqi police, a difficult job in a war zone and the triple-digit Baghdad heat. "At the end of those days,...

MAUSTON, Wis. - Capt. Scott Southworth took his soldiers to a Baghdad orphanage in 2003 to befriend the children. Immediately, a small boy with cerebral palsy befriended him, crawling across the floor to sit next to him. Within a few weeks, Southworth knew he had to bring the boy, Ala'a, home to Wisconsin. More than a year later, Southworth returned to Iraq to pick up the 11-year-old and take him back to Mauston, where Southworth now works as Juneau County district attorney. The single 32-year-old knew the alternative for Ala'a was life in a government orphanage with little chance of...

ANGEL-faced orphans Cham-ilka and Gemhani lost their mum and their home to the tsunami but now face a greater horror—being sold to sex beasts by their grandad. The terrified sisters survived the killer wave after it struck the village of Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka. But after their dad lost his mind with grief and fled the country, they were left in the clutches of evil Aruma Somadasa. Now he wants to sell them to paedophiles for £5,000 each. "You can take both girls, take them abroad if you want, or take just one," he said. "You can do what you...

By Mike E. O'Neal From April to June of 1994 in Rwanda, 800,000 innocent men, women and children were systematically slaughtered for no other reason than their ethnicity. The international community did nothing, blatantly ignoring the genocide pact signed after World War II. In 1884, the Berlin Conference allocated Rwanda as a German colony, though no known white man had ever been there. The Germans, and Belgians after them, sowed the seeds of systematic ethnic strife, using the Rwandan Tutsis to control the Rwandan Hutus. In 1962, France helped the Hutus gain their independence, igniting one of history's most explosive...

A CANADIAN Islamic group is vowing to prevent the adoption by Christian families of Muslim children orphaned in the tsunami disaster. "Canadian Muslims will not allow that the custody of Muslim orphan children to be given to Christian families or any non-Muslim families," reads a release issued yesterday by the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada. The release goes on to say Christian missionaries are kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. "It is now proven that the Christian missionaries do not help people on humanitarian grounds," the release states. "They help people in order to exploit their needs and convert them to...

Tsunami orphans getting recruited by Terror Organizations and relief aids not reaching those who need the same in Sri Lanka and Acheh UNICEF reported a very disturbing information. According to a report, UNICEF complained that Tamil Tigers are recruiting innocent orphaned children, victims of tsunami, into the terror camps. Similar reports are coming from Sumatra. In Acheh and other parts of Indonesia, the terrorists and the human traffickers are also targeting the children. The Indonesian Government today asked all foreign military personnel leave no later than March, 2005. In Sri Lanka, there are some major problems. Tamil Tigers control the...

The Virginia-based missionary group WorldHelp has dropped its plans to place 300 Muslim "tsunami orphans" in a Christian children's home, the group's president, the Rev. Vernon Brewer, told news agencies Thursday. The children were still in the Muslim province of Aceh and had not been airlifted to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, according to an electronic mail message under Brewer's name circulating among his supporters. In an interview Tuesday for an article published in Thursday's editions of The Washington Post , Brewer said that the children already had been airlifted to Jakarta and that the Indonesian government had given permission for them...

The Liverpool children's home that inspired the Beatles' hit song is to close, officials said Wednesday. The psychedelic single "Strawberry Fields Forever" was released in February 1967 with "Penny Lane" on the reverse side and quickly made it to No. 2 in the British charts, but it was kept out of the top slot by Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me." John Lennon wrote the song's dreamy lyrics about a time in his childhood when he lived near the Strawberry Fields orphanage. It has been suggested that Lennon felt a kinship with the orphans after he was abandoned by his father and...

The staff of Unicef’s Sri Lanka operation are in their Colombo offices dealing as best they can with a flood of desperate people, people at the end of their tether, people in overwhelming need of immediate help. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, for instance. Ms Amanpour, or at least her producer, wants two orphans, preferably brothers who have lost at least six other members of their families, please, on the coast road between Bentota and Galle, tomorrow after two o’clock local time for a Sri Lanka — Land In Turmoil prime-time special. It is now 7.30 p.m. When approached by his assistant...

Adoption groups are advising it is unlikely children orphaned by the Asian tsunami disaster would be repatriated to Australia. Agencies including Centrelink and support groups in the ACT have received calls and emails from people wishing to adopt victims of the earthquake event. Julia Rollings, from the Adoptive Families Association, says it is often inappropriate for children affected by war and natural disaster to be adopted overseas. She says the inquiries are well-meaning but are often unrealistic, especially in the short-term. "Inter-country adoption is only appropriate for children who can't be placed in a suitable family within the country of...

Surely, there will be many orphans from this disaster. My wife and I might adopt one of these children if the process is expedited. Has anyone heard anything about this? It may be too soon, but for these children, the sooner the better.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Grieving families of children who perished from tsunamis in Sri Lanka are taking away orphans from the disaster without approval, a move denounced Friday by the government and an aid organization. An official from the Department of Child Care and Protection, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had heard of a dozen cases in Galle and Matara, on Sri Lanka's southern coast, in which orphaned children had been taken in by families that lost loved ones. He asked families to stop. The southern coast took the main brunt of Sunday's massive earthquake-generated tsunamis. As...

Minneapolis (AP) Four sisters from the Ukraine who were separated through adoption were reunited Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and they will now all live near each other in Willmar. Marina and Sveta Kyryluk were greeted at the airport by their sisters, Nadya Roberts and Anya Benson -- who were already living with their adoptive families from Willmar -- and their new parents. Marina, 13, is the new daughter of Dawn and Ross Marcus while Sveta, 16, will be adopted by Sharon and Tony Cruze. Nadya Roberts, 10, is the daughter of Eric and Stacey Roberts and Anya Benson,...

NAVALADY, Sri Lanka, Dec. 29 -- Two hundred yards from the beach, in the orphanage he had built, Dayalan Sanders lounged in his bed early Sunday morning. He was thinking, he said, about the sermon he was due to deliver in the chapel in half an hour. A few yards away, most of the 28 children under his care were still in their rooms, grooming themselves for services.

For the dozens of Palestinian orphans that Yasser Arafat adopted, brought up and indulged, his demise in a Paris hospital was a very personal torment, as they look back on a blissful childhood. Without ever signing official adoption papers, the veteran leader took personal charge of about 66 children, most of them left parentless after the massacres of the Palestinian camps of Tall Zaatar, and Sabra and Chatilla. "It was beautiful. I have very sweet memories," said Ahmed Ramzi Khadura, who became an Arafat "son" after being separated from his natural father, who lives in Lebanon with 12 other kids....

Sreete and another 140 girls will celebrate Christmas in an orphanage surrounded by the affection and love of nuns who care for them every day. In many, a vocation for the religious life is born. Dhaka (AsiaNews/UCAN) – Sreete Dio lives in Bottomley Home, an orphanage in Dhaka run by the nuns of the Associates of Mary, Queen of Apostles order. She is 12-year-old, from the Garo, a matriarchal tribe living in a region north-east of Dhaka, and looking forward to Christmas with joy and hope. She found in the orphanage a family and says she is happy because in...

Polish orphans thank New Zealand for 60 years Tuesday, 12 October 2004, 9:38 am Press Release: Penguin Books NZ Polish orphans thank New Zealand for 60 years of sanctuary The 60th anniversary of the arrival of the Pahiatua children will be celebrated over Labour weekend, with Mayor of Wellington Kerry Prendergast unveiling a commemorative plaque on the 25th of October at the Frank Kitts Park in Lambton Quay. On 31 October 1944, 733 children, mostly Polish orphans and half orphans arrived in Wellington Harbour. The group was accompanied by 105 adults and on 1st November were sent to Pahiatua, where...

Vladikavkaz Baby Orphanage ulitsa Kaloeva, 123 Vladikavkaz, Northern Osetia, 362003 Russia Telephone: (86722) 5-8847

WARSAW, Poland - Twenty children who lost their parents in fighting in Iraq will travel to Poland later this month for a vacation sponsored by the Polish military and a charity, an official said Monday. The children, 10 boys and 10 girls ages 10 to 12 who live in two orphanages in the south-central Iraqi city of Hillah, will get a 10-day break in the mountains of southern Poland. "I would like the children to see a nation without a war, without a conflict," said Lt. Col. Cezary Kiszkowiak, director of the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Center, a branch of the...