Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

           One thing I really enjoy about my job, both now and in the past, is that occasionally something breaks. Initially, I thought I didn’t like these events very much, but I grew to actually enjoy these opportunities as exercises in critical thinking. I found the opportunity to figure out why it broke and then come up with solutions to fix it. It is even more fun to do it proactively, coming up with solutions before the crisis hits.  I found people have the answers if you just ask enough questions.

            One of my new favorites is a process developed for Toyota called 5 Whys. It sounds very simple and consists of framing the problem and then asking “why?” until you find all of the answers. It sounds juvenile at face value and gives me the feeling of being the annoying kid in the store bugging his parents to exasperation. I wonder if the man who developed it had one of those kids at home.

            Anyway, the fun part of 5 Whys (besides the fact it rhymes with 5 Guys which is definitively equal to delicious and great for freestyle rap in the shower, but I digress) is that it engages the people who have the problem and allows them to come up with the solution. I have used this on my teenagers and it works pretty well.

Me: “Your truck is parked in the middle of a cotton field, why?”

            Them: “We drove off the road”          

Me: “Why?”

            Them: “Because I pulled the steering wheel to the left and the road went strait.”

Me: “Why?”

            And so on until we got to the real root of the issue: it is more important to pay attention to your driving than your girlfriend.

           

            So all that said for this: Why don’t we apply the same process to the Orphan Crisis? As an adoptive father I am all about adoption. I am also all about orphanages and foster care systems where orphans will be protected, nurtured, cared for, and shown the love of Jesus Christ. But why don’t we look at the sources of the issue also to stop the flow of orphans into the system? Let’s ask the question, it might sound like this:

Orphans in this giant slum come from single teenage mothers in the slum

            Why?

The mothers contract HIV/AIDS and die

            Why?

They contract HIV/AIDS while selling themselves for sex

            Why?

They need money

            Why

To buy food for their families

            Why?

No one in the family has any other marketable skills to make money.

           

            The reality is that at any point in this conversation we can step in and develop a solution. The deeper we go, the more we understand about the problem. We can provide them food, we can help them to survive HIV/AIDS, and we can help with skills training and support, enabling them to be wage earners themselves, supporting their children and their families.

            We can do any number of things to break the cycle that creates the orphans. But we can only provide the solutions if we are willing to look at the problem on a much bigger scale. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear of Orphan Care and adoption agencies closing their doors because they ran out of orphans? Shouldn’t that be our goal?

            Can we be that audacious and say we are going to put ourselves out of work by creating and developing solutions to the root causes of the Orphan Crisis?  I certainly don’t have all of the solutions, or any for that matter, but I can say that if this is going to be your goal, you can count me in.