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Uganda Care Leavers/Association of Care Leavers Uganda released this statement in response to the appearance of Ugandan children on an April 15, 2023, episode of Britain's Got Talent. These care leavers who have spent part or all of their lives in residential care expressed concern about the institutionalisation of children and the need to instead promote family care for all children.
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This article by Ellen Livingood in Volume 13, Issue 9 of Postings describes the ways in which Christian churches and faith communities are moving away from orphanage volunteering to supporting other forms of care for children. "Often orphanage ministry is one of a church’s most-popular global missions efforts because there is such an emotional attachment to needy children," says Livingood. "Yet disturbing facts about the orphanage model, especially the impact of Western short-term ministries in Majority World orphanages, are causing many churches to rethink their…
Summary
In Episode 51, you will hear from Delia Pop, Director of Programs and Global Advocacy for Hope and Homes for Children, talking with Phil about:
- How we can better understand the ins-and-outs of deinstitutionalization
- Issues with institutional orphanages
- How we can pursue excellence in orphan care around the world
- Why she believes that large institutions are not necessary, but residential can be appropriate in limited, specific situations
- Five steps that will help us work cross-culturally with others to…
Hace un llamado urgente para acabar con la institucionalización de niños y niñas en la región
CIUDAD DE PANAMA, Marzo 9 2017: Desde UNICEF expresamos nuestro dolor ante la trágica muerte de las niñas del Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción de Guatemala. Expresamos nuestra solidaridad con las víctimas, sus familias y el pueblo de Guatemala ante este lamentable hecho.
Nos sumamos al Sistema de Naciones Unidas en Guatemala que lamenta profundamente el terrible suceso ocurrido el día de ayer y a su llamado urgente de…
In this article, a Human Rights Watch researcher describes her personal experiences meeting adults and children in the Western Balkans who have spent their lives hidden away in institutions because they have a disability. These individuals are often subject to abuse, forced medical treatments, and limited freedom of movement. Children are especially vulnerable to abuse and suffer physical, emotional and intellectual delays as a result of isolation and neglect. The authors calls not only on governments to work towards deinstitutionalization, but on all people to end the pervasive…
This article explores how the demand for orphanage tourism, whether from volunteers or holidaymakers visiting or donating, can fuel child trafficking and abuse. In Cambodia, for example, UNICEF has expressed concern that orphanages have become so lucrative that the “demand” from tourists and volunteers had created supply and that tourism was unwittingly financing the creation of orphanages, populated by children who were not, in fact, orphans. The article also discusses the Better Care Network's work to raise awareness of the risks to children through international volunteering…
Published in Scientific American in 2013, "Anguish of the Abandoned Child: The plight of orphanaed Romanian children reveals the psychic and physical scars from first years spent without a loving, responsibe caregiver" describes the findings from the first-ever randomized trial comparing the emotional and physical well-being of institutionalized children with those placed in foster care in Bucharest, Romania.
Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu banned birth control and abortion in 1966 to increase Romania’s population. Overwhelmed, parents left children by the…
Romania’s Abandoned Children: Deprivation, Brain Development and the Struggle for Recovery, by Charles A. Nelson, Nathan A. Fox and Charles H. Zeanah
This article reviews a new book by Charles A. Nelson, Nathan A. Fox and Charles H. Zeanah who conducted seminal studies in Romania on children who were institutionalised, comparing their developmental and well-being outcomes to children who were placed in foster care or adoptive families. The study found that placing children in foster care, even relatively late in infancy (the average age was 22 months), brought benefits in…
In this article for Prism Magazine, a publication of Evangelicals for Social Action, the authors ask challenging questions about the active role played by the Western Church "not only in funding orphanages where they may not be needed but also encouraging "orphanage tourism" disguised in the form of short-term mission trips." They review the evidence from global research that has demonstrated the adverse impacts of residential care on the development of children and their protection rights, and ask some challenging questions: "Why are orphanages unacceptable…
The February IREX/Assistance to Russian Orphans (ARO) Program Newsletter provides information on the many recent activities and seminars. ARO (Assistance to Russian Orphans) expert consultants led seminars and trainings on child psychology, family intervention, emergency psychological assistance to children by telephone, support services for foster families, and early intervention for children between the ages of 0-4 for specialists in Barnaul, Komsomol'sk-na-Amure, Novosibirsk, and Tambov in February.
The ARO Team provided valuable administrative training to ARO partner…