"Edhi Orphans: Pakistan's Abandoned Hope" A cradle for women to leave unwanted children sits at the top of a staircase with a sign above reading "DON'T KILL" at the Edhi orphanage on March 6, 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan.

STORY SUMMARY:phanage on March 6, 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan. The Edhi Foundation urges women give up unwanted children rather than abandon or kill in order to cover up children conceived out of wedlock, or through rape. The Edhi Foundation orphanages represent a microcosm of Pakistan’s absolute poverty where children are its first casualty, tragedy and hope collide on a daily basis, and life and death are in constant flux existing only rooms apart. Pakistan is a country more than a third of it’s population live in absolute poverty. As world attention fixates on Pakistan’s ongoing political turmoil, generations of children are being abandoned due to Pakistan’s spiraling poverty and growing instability. Some are born out of wedlock – a major social taboo – others discarded due to physical and mental disabilities, but nearly all are abandoned due to poverty. Boys and girls alike are abandoned every year, found in dumpsters mauled by rats and dogs, or left to fend for themselves on the streets of Karachi’s sprawling and unforgiving metropolis. The lucky ones find their way to the Edhi Foundation orphanages.