Atlantic

Orphaned children don’t only have to
deal with losing their parents, but like Monica,
they must also tackle all other obstacles
life throws at them (Roldan). They must
learn to be responsible and get jobs in order
to get money to support themselves, and in
Monica’s case, her four younger siblings.
But meeting such needs can be a little more
than complicated, since they usually have
no money or any form of support whatsoever,
and it is because of things like this that
over 1 billion children suffer from at least
one form of severe deprivation of basic
needs such as water, food, and sanitation
(Holt International). After losing her mother,
Monica and her siblings lived with their
aunt and uncle, and Monica started to work
for her uncle as a secretary, in order to help
earn some money. She still had to go to
school every day, and drive her sisters and
brothers to school each morning (Roldan).
She had to make many sacrifices in order to
keep what was left of her family together.
She gave up the rest of her childhood, and
like she said during the interview, “I wanted
to live my life like the teenager I was, but I
couldn’t, so it was really hard”. She spent
the next few years of her life juggling with
her job and being the main caretaker of her
siblings. But despite these circumstances,
she attended college and got her Bachelor’s
in Tourist Management. She became a very
successful businesswoman, and later on
married and had three daughters, before
moving to the United States. Monica had a
good life, considering, and did the best she
could with the cards she was dealt. But sadly,
not all orphans are as lucky as Monica.
Each year, 14,505,000 children grow
up as orphans and age out of the system by
age sixteen, and each day, 38,493 orphans
age out. Every 2.2 seconds another orphan
ages out with no family to belong to and no
place to call home, and in Russia and
Ukraine, studies show that 10% to 15% of
these children commit suicide before even
reaching the age of eighteen. The studies
also show that 60% of the girls become
prostitutes and 70% of the boys become
hardened criminals. A different study re-