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Orphans and displaced youth

Across the United States and Africa, countless children and families live in poverty, with critical needs often left unmet. In many communities, systemic inequities, economic barriers, and social disruption place children at risk, leaving families struggling to provide basic necessities. Thousands of Black children are growing up without adequate shelter, food, medicine, or clothing, while extended families and communities work tirelessly to fill these gaps.

Guided by the principles of care, justice, and communal responsibility, IFBAA is securing the resources to respond to these urgent needs. With the generosity of our supporters, we can provide safe housing, nourishment, healthcare, and clothing to children and families in crisis. We will also establish programs that foster cultural grounding, mentorship, and family support systems, helping Black children and families not only survive but reclaim stability, identity, and hope for the future.

Stories Related to Orphans and displaced youth

Nowhere to go

Crossing State Lines

The border between us

Each year, thousands of young people leave the foster care system not because they’ve found stability, but because they’ve simply grown too old to stay. At eighteen, they cross an invisible threshold from state protection to self-reliance. Many step into adulthood carrying the weight of instability, trauma, and systemic neglect. their stories are not only about struggle. They are about survival, self-definition, and the power of community to stand in the gap where the system falls short.

when a young person leaves home before eighteen, it’s more likely out of survival not adventure. Each year, thousands of youth move across state lines seeking safety, opportunity, or a sense of belonging they couldn’t find where they were born. For many these journeys carry added weight. In this article we seek to understand the unseen reality of underage relocation: the courage it takes to rebuild alone, the communities that quietly catch those who fall, and the resilience that grows when home is something you have to create for yourself.

For many children across the African world, home is not a fixed place but a memory carried through checkpoints, camps, and temporary shelters. Wars, political instability, and economic crises have scattered families across borders and generations. Childhood, for these young refugees, often means learning to survive before learning to play, to translate between languages, and to rebuild trust in a world that has already taken so much. This is a story about survival, identity, and the powerful human will to belong, even when every border says you don’t.