I know there are a million issues we all worry about every day. It gets hard to decide where to put your time and money (if you have it to spare). Should you rescue the whales or the cheetahs? Should you support organizations fighting for your rights or the rights of others, folks overseas whom you will never meet but whose eyes gaze pleadingly out at you from the t.v. and magazines, telling you that just $15 a month could feed their entire family? The last thing you need is to hear about another noble cause that you might or might not have the energy and money left to help.

Nevertheless, here is one more to consider. Recently, the Duchess of York went with a reporter to investigate orphanages in Turkey. The situation they found was appalling, beyond anything we can even imagine accepting in the United States. Kids tied, boxed, ignored. Adults who never get to leave and thus spend their lives tied to the furniture. Infants tearing off their own ears to escape the pain caused by neglectful practices. There’s a documentary about the trip coming out on Thursday, but more importantly Fergie is trying to raise money to help build better institutions in Turkey and elsewhere. No one would willingly choose to warehouse children in this manner, but a lack of funding enforces a standard of apathy.

If you can help, please do, whether it is through making donations or simply continuing to spread the world. No matter what country we claim as home, all the children of this world have to grow up together. The least we can do is work to give them a chance at a real life.

Thanks to Robin over at Vabolium.com for being the first to bring my attention to this issue.