Pictured here with the children of Nilerigu, Ghana’s first orphanage. Attitudes toward orphans and care provided are quite culturally-dependent. In more traditional African communities to concept of an “orphan” was almost unheard of. All children have relatives, and if their parents died, they are naturally absorbed into the home of their kin. Only in industrialized nations has the concept of “orphanage” been developed; a partial indictment to our inability to care for parentless children within our extended families. The AIDS crisis in many developing nations, however, has strained some extended families to the point that the concept of orphanage is making an unfortunate debut.