Sixty thousand kids are at our border, having recently sought refuge from a violence few of us could imagine. For those of us that are parents, it is inconceivable to raise children under the circumstances faced by many families in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Our country seems at its "wits end" in trying to determine how to deal with this crisis. Sadly we needn't look far in the past to see the country facing an onslaught of children emigrating to America and in need of protection and care.
From the years 1850 to 1930, an estimated 35 million immigrants arrived in this country mainly from parts of Europe. Families moved with hopes of a better life, only to find themselves in unsafe, poor living conditions & unable to provide for their children. Children by the thousands lived on the streets, with or without their families and many became orphans. In 1853, the Children's Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace. He worked to find homes for the children, but soon recognized that there were far more children to place, than there were (local) homes available. Joined by other charities, in particular the New York Foundling a Hospital, & Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbons, a new movement was born. The Orphan Train Movement lasted 75 years, placed hundreds of thousands of homeless children in rural America, & has been recognized as the beginning of the documented foster care system in America.
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