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JK Rowling urges students not to volunteer at orphanages
Author highlights evidence suggesting that ‘orphanage tourism’ drives families apart and makes children vulnerable to abuse
JK Rowling has called on students around the world not to volunteer at orphanages, pointing to emerging evidence that “orphanage tourism” drives family separation and child trafficking.
Speaking at the One Young World summit in London, the global forum for young leaders, the Harry Potter author and founder and president of children’s charity Lumos, said orphanages do “irreparable harm” and “perpetuate the abuse” of children and communities.
“Despite the best of intentions, the sad truth is that visiting and volunteering in orphanages drives an industry that separates children from their families and puts them at risk of neglect and abuse,” she said.
[...] Rowling was launching a three-year global campaign to challenge attitudes toward orphanage tourism and volunteering, #HelpingNotHelping. The campaign is backed by recently revised travel advice from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office warning of the potential harm of orphanage tourism and volunteering.
[...] Children in institutions are 500 times more likely to take their own lives, 40 times more likely to have a criminal record and 10 times more likely to be involved in prostitution, the charity claims.
[...] “Most children in orphanages are not even ‘orphans’ – they are placed there due to reasons such as poverty, disability, or to receive an education, and many have a family who could care for them, given the right support,” said Alex Christopoulos, deputy CEO of Lumos.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @11:20PM
Plus, you have to compare apples to apples. Don't compare kids from orphanages to kids from all other homes. Compare orphanages with abusive or neglect homes, with poor homes, with full homes, etc. It is the same thing when people were arguing against the safe haven law. Yes, there is a small percentage of people who are going to have kids knowing that if things get bad, they can just dump the kid off. However, most people are going to get pregnant or have the kid and then try to figure out what to do as negative situations arise. Without orphanages, you will have abandoned kids (which have to go somewhere anyway), dead kids, or abused/neglected kids, as well as some that will be in good environments after all. But you are forcing parents to deal with kids they don't want; is it any surprise the outcomes will be less than great a large percentage of the time. And, many are already making the decision that no matter how bad being a ward is, the kids are better in that situation than staying with the parents. So don't go comparing the worst of outcomes on the one case with the best of alternatives you can imagine on the other.