HARMFULL EFFECTS OF ORPHANAGES

Today, millions of vulnerable children around the world are growing up in orphanages, without the love and care of a family. In the best cases, the children are receiving food, clothes, a cot or bed, an education and a roof over their heads. They are supported by well-meaning charities, churches, individuals and governments. In the worst cases, they are isolated, starved, abused, sold into international adoption or sex cartels, and many die.

In all cases, they never get the love, support and sense of identity that only a loving family can give. Hundreds of studies tell us - as does our common sense - that family life is critical to a child's healthy development. Without it, children suffer great harm and are deeply damaged.

The physical and psychological harm

Evidence shows us that children who grow up in institutional care are more likely to suffer from poor health, physical underdevelopment, deterioration in brain growth, and to experience developmental delays and emotional attachment disorders.

Consequently, they have lower intellectual, social and behavioural abilities than children growing up in a family environment. They also suffer the social consequences of having no family support structure and being branded as social outcasts, which often lasts a lifetime.

With the right support, the older children can go on to live fairly normal lives. But most can expect little more than a life of homelessness, loneliness, difficulty developing permanent relationships and turning to substance abuse, crime and self-harm. Many will continue the cycle of placing their children in orphanages, as that is all they all know about childhood and parenting.

For babies and young children under the age of three, the harm is often permanent and irreversible; no amount of physical or psychological treatment will ever restore them. Their future is very bleak.

                                   Every day that a child spends in an orphanage is one day too many. It denies him or her a life in a family and the opportunity to grow up to be a healthy and happy individual. Rather than creating, supporting and funding solutions that keep vulnerable children in orphanages, we need solutions that keep children and families together. Children have the right to a better life than the one an orphanage provides.