Lost Kites, new film about orphans, will be shown in Rosebud

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Lost Kites, a film in its Canadian premiere tour, will be shown at Rosebud Church on Sunday, April 24. The film explores the conditions of orphans around the world, focusing on the stories of three abandoned children in India, Brazil and China.
The Lost Kites project began three years ago, when six young men and women from four different countries met to create a film about global conditions for orphans – and to explore better ways to care for them. The team visited 22 countries over a two-year period, interviewing social workers, doctors, orphan advocates and orphans themselves. They learned that, worldwide, 8-10 million children live in orphanages, while over 100 million children live on the streets. And they learned that institutional-style orphanages don’t necessarily meet children’s needs.
“These kinds of childcare systems can’t provide the love and nurture that kids need,” said Jeff Rogers, Lost Kites producer. “So it creates a growing attachment disorder that prevents them from being able to develop further, so they don’t bond the way they could. There’s a fear. There’s a disconnect. Until they find love they can trust, until they find love that we believe is ideally found in family, in permanent family, they’re going to stay in that disconnect. And that leads to horrible outcomes.”
Some of those horrible outcomes are indicated in a study done in Russia: a child who grows to adulthood in an orphanage is 500 times more likely to commit suicide than a child who grows up in a family.
But the Lost Kites film doesn’t end with bad news.
“The story is not a gloomy documentary of just heavy facts and harsh realities,” Rogers said. “We saw that there was an antidote. There was a hope in finding families for kids.”
For instance, he said, raising children in families is much less expensive than raising them in institutions. Even more important, when children experience safety, acceptance and love, they can overcome attachment issues and develop the ability to form healthy relationships.
The Lost Kites team hopes their film will create an awareness that helps make that happen.
“We hope to see children restored to families, (children) that are now in institutional orphan care,” Rogers said. “We’d love to see thousands of kids restored to family.”
As a beginning, the Lost Kites team is partnering with an organization that works in Kenya, helping orphanages find families for the children in their care. People interested in supporting that goal can see the Take Action section at lostkites.com.
Lost Kites will be shown at 7 p.m. at Rosebud Church. Admission is free. The film is 48 minutes long and the filmmakers will be present for a question-and-answer session after the show. For more information, see lostkites.com or the Lost Kites Film Facebook page.