Churches mark Orphan Sunday by focusing on children without parental care

Christian congregations in Latvia and around the world marked Orphan Sunday on Sunday, drawing attention to children without parental care, LSM reported. The observance takes place on the first Sunday of November each year.

Andris Kravalis, an auxiliary bishop of the Riga Archdiocese, visited children from the Riga Children, Youth and Family Social Support Centre. Services around the world were also dedicated to children who do not live with their families.

After lunch, the children joined volunteers from Caritas Latvia to draw, make crafts and blow up balloons. Evita Solorsano-Rohasa, who has volunteered at children’s care homes in Riga for five years, said it was difficult to keep an emotional distance. She has four children of her own.

Solorsano-Rohasa said some young people she first met four or five years ago remain in care, although they have moved between centres. She said she was glad that the girls she knows are working and studying, and want to achieve something in life.

Efforts over the past decade to help children grow up in family settings, including a deinstitutionalisation process, have not resolved all the problems, the report said. Caritas said the number of children removed from adverse family situations has risen in recent years. The organisation opened children’s apartments in Riga this summer to accommodate children taken from families; other foundations have also opened such apartments.