On Monday, I posted a blog explaining how the Coronavirus is much more dangerous to institutionalised children than to other children, because of their weakened immune system (you can read the blog HERE). Since then I have been struck by another threat that faces a portion of institutionalised children because of Coronavirus, and I want to share that with you.
As you may have read before in my blogs or other publications, there is a widespread practice of so-called orphanages being set up by people who remove children from their poor families, and place them in an institution in order to be able to get foreign and local donations from donors and volunteers. Generally, little of this money is actually spent on the children, most of it ends up in the pockets of those running the ‘orphanage’.
Now that Coronavirus is making international travel all but impossible – and thereby drying up the flow of volunteers -, and the economic blows that accompany it are forcing people to tighten their belts, these for-profit ‘orphanages’ will soon start to notice that their source of income has evaporated. Given that the people running these places have no problem yanking children out of their families, exploiting them and in some cases even keeping them malnourished and badly cared for in order to get more money, I don’t think they will be terribly concerned about making sure the children are alright once the money stops coming in.
When ‘caring’ for chldren fails as an investment, I predict that it will not be long before the children are dumped and the managers move on to better opportunities. In the best case scenario, children may be dumped on their families’ doorstep – in cases where the children had only been away from their family for a few months, this may be a good thing, but for those who have been institutionalised for years, this is going to be very problematic without proper support and the children may be rejected by their family and end up in the street due to challenging behaviour and difficulties adjusting. In many cases, I expect children will simply be pushed out of the front door, or may simply find all the adults gone one day, and will then have to fend for themselves.
This is a danger that we MUST be aware of, and must do what we can to mitigate. The solution is not to keep sending money to exploitative institutions, but rather for the organisations involved in alternative care on the ground, such as Lumos, UNICEF, SOS Children’s Villages International, Stahili Foundation, Hope and Homes for Children, and Next Generation Nepal to be aware of this and to develop strategies to identify the ‘orphanages’ where this is likely to happen and to support the children and families to make sure that they can in fact be safely reunited. I will be happy to work with anyone looking to address this.
For those not working in the field, you can direct your donations towards organisations and projects supporting families and communities, to help reduce the blow that way.
Please help spread awareness on this by sharing this blog, the clock is ticking for these children.
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