stories

Adimir's Story

Adimir's Story

Our World Without Orphans teammate, Karen Springs, recently shared with us the story of Adimir, a young boy she met at an orphanage in Kyrgyzstan. Karen is a passionate follower of Jesus and advocate for orphaned and vulnerable children. As you watch this video, consider that Adimir's story is representative of many, many more children and families worldwide. 

It’s a story that powerfully demonstrates what studies and statistics reveal: “Over 80% of the children [living in orphanages] have a living parent, [and] the majority could be reunited with their families given the right support….“Poverty is recognized as the main driver of child institutionalization in most countries." (Lumos report, Children in Institutions: The Global Picture)

Note from Karen:

I’ve been involved in the World Without Orphans movement since its inception and was able to take an active role in the planning of the first Global Forum in 2016. Though I’ve worked in orphan care for over a decade, it is through my work with WWO that I’ve come to understand the importance of family care at a new level. Though I had been advocating to help keep children in birth families and out of orphanages, I had never personally walked out the process of reunification - that is until I met Adimir. On a trip to Kyrgyzstan in 2014 I was introduced to Admir and his family. God has used his story to illustrate the reality that many children in institutional care could actually return to their biological families if given the proper support. Meeting Adimir brought the statistics to life by giving me a face and a name with which to connect the numbers I’d read about. Watch this story to see how we were able to come along side this family in crisis and see children leave an institution and return home.

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