Sub-Saharan African countries are suffering from a huge number of orphans left behind after their parents die from illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, resulting in a larger number of orphanages in countries such as Tanzania.  Contributing to this disproportionate number of orphanages is the fact that, in some cases, the parents are simply unable to provide for the children, or they have been abandoned, increasing the number of orphans in Tanzania.  Volunteers need to understand, however, that Tanzanian orphanages are not organized the way most Westerners expect.  Because of the family-oriented culture, orphans tend to be absorbed into extended families or are even sometimes taken in by neighbors.  These added children put a huge strain on the families who take them in, and so the orphans are sent to ‘orphanages’ for certain hours of the day to receive education, interaction, and food.  Western volunteers must understand that the children usually do not live at the orphanage and are only there for a few hours in the day, and so on.

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