About Us

The Orphan Society of America (OSA) provides social and educational support to individuals orphaned by violence.

Each year in the United States, thousands of children and adolescents are orphaned by violence. These orphans lose their parent/s spontaneously and unnaturally as a result of homicide, suicide, war, disaster, and sudden death accidents.

Before OSA was created, no organization in America existed for the purpose of providing services, educational resources, raising awareness, and advocating on behalf of orphans of violence.

According to a groundbreaking study by Barbara Parker and Richard Steeves at the University of Virginia, by a conservative estimate, parental homicide affects more than 3,000 children in the U.S. annually. Exact numbers are difficult to come by since police records do not always mention children, and may not mention the relationship between adults unless they are married. Parker and Steeves calculate that children in the U.S. are more likely to see a parent murdered than to contract leukemia. Their study also found that 63% of uxoricides (the murder of one partner by the other) occur with a child in the home and that 43% of the children either witness the murder or find the body.

There are thousands of children losing parents to violence and other tragedies in America each year, and OSA is here to help them.