In order to maintain a vital connection with Afghan society as a bridge between the children and their future, AFCECO does not raise the children in isolation. Even if both parents are deceased there is usually a relative somewhere hinging upon this orphan one day being able to provide for the family in some way. It is also important for the children to feel connected to their country. So many Afghans have fled their homeland over the past thirty years, it is almost a certainty that a lack of connection to people and their war torn society would similarly lead to an educated orphan child leaving if given the opportunity. This means that we risk losing a child. In a country still at war, with poor and often fundamentalist relatives focused on short term financial needs, inevitably a child will not return from a visit to his or her village. Given the situation in every region of Afghanistan it is remarkable that each year, out of 500 children only six or seven of them fail to return. Some go to work for the family, some stay at home to help a sick mother, some are married off, and some just disappear. Every child we lose is a blow to our hearts, and to the hearts of sponsors. Still, with our first generation of orphans now approaching college age we are heartened by the fact that most all our children stay with us, grow with us, and their relatives come to see us a family as much as the children do.