By Christopher Williams

When a child loses a parent, it is a tragedy to be mourned. When a child loses both parents, it's a catastrophe.

This past January found individuals and organizations mobilized on BYU campus to spread awareness of the global orphan crisis currently progressing through Africa and other war-torn nations. Several non-governmental organizations gathered Friday, January 25 in the recently dedicated Hinckley Center Assembly Hall as a part of the Orphan Awareness Seminar sponsored by the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Endowed Chair in Social Work and the Social Sciences.

The message of the seminar was of hope and raising awareness of what human tragedies are taking place in many third-world or otherwise impoverished nations.

In addition to raising AIDS and orphan awareness among those present, the seminar encouraged additional research and scholarship on the orphan crisis. Representatives from HELP International, Village of Hope, and Mothers without Borders used the seminar to provide a forum for researchers and other organizations to share their work in sub-Saharan Africa with orphaned and at-risk children.

Family Watch International sponsored the orphans Luis, Amelia, and Afonso Belchoir from Mozambique who had recently lost their parents and older brother to AIDS. These children were featured as the living spokespeople for the ongoing problems the NGOs were addressing and spoke of how the work of these organizations had changed their lives.

Afonso, the youngest of the children, spoke of an experience where he was sick and his oldest brother didn't have money to buy medicine. Without the help from these international help organizations, he would have died.

"We don't feel like we're orphans anymore," said Amelia Belchoir.

Luis spoke to the audience about his parents, who had fallen victim to an unknown sickness just weeks before the experience Afonso had shared.

"Two weeks before [Afonso falling ill], my parents lost their lives to a sickness they could not identify," Luis said. "AIDS really exists. Especially where I come from (Sapala), it exists."

Luis said that he couldn't accept that his parents were dead at first, but as time moves on a person's capacity expands and one starts searching for greater understanding.

"My parents died of AIDS," he said. "Because of this I say that AIDS does exist."

Ongoing problems the various NGOs are dealing with, in addition to the AIDS epidemic, are things like abandonment of mentally handicapped street children.

Jennifer Kumar from HELP International said that such children remain on the street for so many years and when they are picked up off it and put into a family without any counseling, soon after they end up right back on the street.

Lon Kennard from Village of Hope and Kathy Headlee of Mothers without Borders raised the issue of parents literally not having the resources they need to take care of their own kids.

Headlee said that parents just are not able to feed their children, and so abandon them to the street with no other option.

Students at BYU who wish to be involved in the ongoing humanitarian efforts in Africa can enroll in internship programs, find an NGO in the area to support which they can be passionate about, and above all pray.

During the Q&A session, the Belchoir children were asked what the main driving force was in their lives to continue after losing their parents.

Luis Belchoir said he knows that Jesus Christ has a message for him and his brother and sister to give. He said that what has helped his family to survive has been hard work to get to the point they are at right now.

"One thing that affects a certain person can also affect various people," Luis said. "As members of the church we help each other. We have a complete union."

Gesturing to his hands, Luis said, "If we put them all together, yours, mine, his, hers, we will have a solution and the Lord will help in that solution."

"This is the way that we have overcome our difficulties," he said.