An interesting question with a complicated answer. After all, we don't have orphanages in the US, so why does Ukraine (or any other country)? For Ukraine, there are several reasons:
1. When Ukraine was part of the USSR people were taught not to have children if they could not feed them, dress them properly, and provide them an education. Parents who could not provide these things for their children dropped them off at orphanages.
2. Ukraine has a high level of alcohol and substance abuse which either kills the parents, makes them abandon their children, or their children are taken away from them by the government.
3. The Ukrainian government provides financial support during the first three years of life for every child, totaling about $1500. Some people have children just to get the money, then drop them off at orphanages.
4. Abortions are expensive and raising a child is expensive. It costs about $200 per month to keep a child and the average salary is $100-200 per month. Many women simply abandon their newborn babies at the hospital right after they are born.
And the number of orphans is growing.
Adopting orphans from Ukraine is a difficult and expensive process for foreigners due to government corruption.
This is why we are going: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~James 1:27
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