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Should businesses be supporting orphanages?
As part of their community investment initiatives many companies think that they make a valuable contribution to local communities by supporting orphanages. Their well intentioned, but often misguided, view is that they can help to support children that are perceived to be vulnerable through cash donations and volunteering activities. But many experts on child welfare are challenging this approach and strenuously arguing that businesses should stay as far away from orphanages as possible. So should busineses be supporting orphanages? The short answer is no!
Whilst some companies feel that they can make a difference to vulnerable children through supporting orphanages. In fact they can often make bad situations worse. It is no co-incidence that the number of orphanages in Western Europe has seen a dramatic decline.
This is quite simply because we have come to realise that such institutions are not good for the development of children. The same is true anywhere in the world, including here in Asia. If businesses really want to help vulnerable children then one of the things they can do is to contribute to eradicating orphanages.
However, in countries such as Cambodia we have actually seen dramatic increases in the number of orphanages recently. Most operate privately. Yet according to UNICEF, of the approximately 12,000 children in orphanages in Cambodia, only a quarter have actually lost both parents. So why are they in orphanages?
While parental illness, disability, violence, abuse and desertion account for some of the children in orphanages, it is actually extreme poverty that is behind most cases. Friends International points out that poor parents often believe that orphanages will provide food, shelter and education and that children will be better off in an institution.
In this matter – the question is, who really benefits from a company’s support? The orphanage it’s self, or the children and their needs
But parents are often misled, even by the orphanages themselves. Many children are in orphanages because their parents think they will be better cared for there, not because they have no other place to go.
Many children found in orphanages do not need to be in such institutions. Thus, tackling the root cause of why children are in orphanages (which is more often than not associated with poverty) is likely to be much more effective than supporting institutions that often look more like small businesses than care agencies.
The fact is that many international studies have repeatedly shown that children are better off in a family unit rather than in an institution. Many countries are actively moving away from supporting orphanages. They are more in favour of helping poor families to take care of their own children and developing alternative foster care programs.
Moreover, there is evidence that it is actually cheaper to care for a child in a family unit rather than an orphanage. Supporting a poor community and creating sustainable livelihoods is likely to have a bigger impact on protecting children than supporting orphanages.
Of course, there are some cases (for example, domestic violence) where children have to be separated from their families. Or if children run away from dangerous situations there may be a role for temporary crisis shelters. But orphanages are not the answer. Skilled child care with experienced foster care will always be a better solution for children as risk.
Research from the International Organisation for Adolescents has also found that young adults who left orphanages often experienced a variety of problems. This includes dysfunctional family relationships, homelessness, trafficking, exploitation and drug abuse. Orphanages can actually have negative effects on the development of children and decrease their chances of success later in life.
Volunteers
Many companies not only support orphanages financially but get their staff volunteers involved in the orphanage as well. Staff are told that they can “make a difference” and have “rewarding” experiences. They encourage them to fix up the orphanages, play with children, sing songs, help them to read, paint pictures and build the children’s confidence. In fact, painting the walls, reading, singing and playing with the children may have a positive impact on the volunteer. Unfortunately it does little to support the needs of the children.
Volunteers often confuse the impact that they are feeling with the impact that they are making!
Most short-term volunteers lack the expertise of engaging with institutionalised children. But that does not seem to matter when they place the emphasis is on the volunteer’s emotional response. Rather than the effectiveness of the help itself. A revolving door of volunteers often contributes to the emotional loss and feeling of abandonment which children in orphanages experience. Although volunteers may feel they are having a positive impact, it can actually have harmful effects.
In many cases part of the aim of the corporate volunteering program is to create teamwork, cooperation and trust amongst the staff involved. If that is the aim, it may well be better to do this outside an orphanage. Indeed, enthusiastic employee volunteers, lacking in child development skills, can do great harm and perpetuate a generation of children deprived of a home life.
Unfortunately, many orphanages really are run as small businesses. If they keep children in squalor that will often attract more donations. A good way to keep the donations rolling in is to recruit more children. And even pay their parents to give them away. In tourist locations, they use children to “recruit” tourist visitors to their orphanages. They do this by handing out leaflets in bars late at night. As well as asking the tourists to visit them in “picturesque poverty”. Inevitably such tourists often leave behind money. Little of it may go to supporting the children. The “poor orphans” end up looking a lot like child labourers.
Corporate donors need to understand that their support of orphanages can actually keep children in institutions. And may cut off family bonds. It will do little to contribute to child development. Their time and money will be much better spent on community based programs.
Thus if the private sector wants to help vulnerable children it should stay well clear of supporting orphanages and concentrate on:
- Supporting community-based programs, which directly support families and help children to live at home.
- Enabling and supporting programs that reintegrate children back into families.
- Supporting family-based alternatives to orphanages through programs of foster care.
- Providing support for children who are victims of domestic violence though skilled fostering,
- Supporting local community projects where children are vulnerable because of poverty and contributing to raising family incomes through sustainable enterprises.
- Contributing to projects that improve educational opportunities of children.
- Helping to address food security so that children can be adequately fed in their own communities.
- Providing appropriate skills based volunteering for local organisations that can support the well-being of children outside of orphanages. Putting the emphasis on transferring those skills to local people.
If you are further interested in this topic, a useful resource is
www.csr-asia.com/weekly_news_detail.php?id=12203