Free Republic

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...