Well, across the world, there are 8 to 10 million children living in orphanages and
more than 10 times that living on the streets.
That's why a group of young filmmakers spent two years putting together a documentary.
They wanted to show what life is like for the modern-day orphan and help get them into
the families they need and deserve.
I see children like I see kites rippling colorfully and tethered by a fine line of guidance.
Go on, we breathe and they climb, but if they slip through our fingers, how quickly their
winds swept.
This is the story of three lost kites.
Well joining us now is the screenwriter for Lost Kites and the head of research and writing
for Global Breakthrough, Casey Walker.
Casey, it's great to have you with us.
Hi, thank you.
Talk a little bit about Global Breakthrough and also what the inspiration behind Lost
Kites was all about.
Yeah, Global Breakthrough is kind of my first start at looking at how we can pray and see
how God can work through practical ways of helping children.
And that's what led me to Youth with a Mission.
And they are the ones that I work directly to make the film with.
And when people see Lost Kites, because we're going to tell them how they can do that in
just a few minutes, but what do you want them to come away with?
What's the inspiration behind it?
My biggest takeaway from making this film was that there's hope that family restoration
can happen all over the globe, that children actually can be with family.
They don't have to be in an orphanage.
That's not the only answer.
And it was, for me, it was the more countries I traveled to, the more hope I had that actually
God can do this and that we can be a part of it.
There's actually a huge movement toward that now.
I mean, we first met at World Without Orphans in Thailand some time ago where we all watched
this film.
And you know, there is a movement toward putting children in families or family settings.
How would you say orphanages today differ from the kind of orphanages we might have in our
mind that existed even 10, 20 years ago?
Sure.
So a lot of what we saw is that the majority of the children within the orphanages actually
have a mom or a dad.
I think the global statistic right now is 86% have a mom or a dad.
So we would go to all these orphanages and we'd say, OK, if you have a mom or a dad,
why aren't you with them?
And then we started to uncover that poverty is the number one reason.
It's a lot of single moms.
And they show up at the orphanage step and just say, I can't take care of my child.
Could you?
And so now we're looking at a change, a shift from one person taking care of many children
to social workers helping those families stay together and stay on their feet and be able
to keep their children.
You in Los Kites follow three children through a series of time, a period of time.
Talk a little bit about each of them, Sanjoy.
Who is he and why him?
Yeah.
So Sanjoy, he was a street boy in India and he was so unique in that he was actually saving
money, which is very rare for a street child.
The money gets cut out of your pocket at night if you try and save it.
He set up a money saving system in different day centers for children and his goal was
to get off the street.
He wanted to start up a small business.
In the middle of filming, he ended up running away from us and it began, it began this search
for Sanjoy in the midst of so many people in India you can imagine.
It's a sea.
It's a sea and the fact that no one, he was accountable to no one.
Normally when you, you know, with a child, the teacher knows where they are, the mom knows
where they are.
He's 15.
He didn't look 15, but even so, 15 having had no parenting prior to this is younger
than 15.
And he'd been on the street for a long time, so that was, that was Sanjoy's story.
And Warwick, he's a 17 year old in Brazil and he was living in orphanage when he's 18.
He knew he'd have to graduate out and do something with his life.
So Warwick, one option was to continue working at the factory that he was at.
The other option, he's really good at soccer and you know how Brazil is so big on soccer.
So the professional city team invited him to come try out.
So for Warwick, this was, you know, the chance at his dream and his goal was to make the
team and get his brother out of the orphanage as well.
So we followed him through training and trying out.
And our last child, Carmela, the joy of my heart, she's a two and a half year old in
China and she was abandoned as a baby.
She had a hole in her heart left at the hospital.
Local Christian foster parents took her in and they didn't have enough money for her
surgery.
The surgery in itself would be an experiment.
So they were trying to find a hospital that could really take care of her needs and also
that they could afford it.
So they really laid everything on the line for her life.
They were willing to sell their house, sell their car, anything to get Carmela their foster
child into surgery.
And to some degree, that's really the story that needs to occur for all children, isn't
it?
For someone to step up and be willing to sacrificially love and go and do, you know, what, how can
people help?
Because this whole concept of putting children in families isn't something new that people
thought of.
It's a God idea.
I mean, he says, I put the lonely in families because family is how we grow up and mature
and become.
So what can people do to help foster, if I could use that word, this whole idea of children
belonging in families?
Sure.
So of course, there's international adoption, domestic, foster care is wonderful.
Something that everyone can do is to sponsor a child internationally.
One organization we work with is Compassion International, and we love the work that
they do.
The child actually stays in their family, and it goes through the local church with
the pastor, and they get to grow up in the Lord, get an education, get their medication
taken care of, anything they need.
And so you pay a small monthly amount, you can write letters to your child, encourage
them in the Lord from overseas, and just see them really blossom in their community and
with their family.
Well, it's an inspiring, inspiring film, and we thank you for your hard work.
You all went to 22 countries along the way in the process.
God is good.
He surely is, he surely is.
We thank you for being with us today, Casey.
I want to tell all of you that the documentary is called Lost Kites, and it's one that has
the endorsement of Orphan's Promise, where CBN's arm extended to orphaned and vulnerable
children around the world, and we believe in this entire concept as well, that children
belong in families, even orphanages that have family-like settings.
But if you'd like to see how you can watch that film or set up a screening in your area,
even go to CBN.com.
This is an idea that's time has come, and we need you to help us promote that.
Casey, thank you so much for your work.
Thank you.
Thank you.
