Child protection and NGO workers are pleading with tourists and volunteers to stay away from orphanages in Cambodia, claiming so-called “orphanage tourism” damages the children and enables exploitation.
The number of Australians visiting Cambodia is increasing, as are the number of orphanages in the country, rising by 75% in the five years to 2011, according to UNICEF. However, most children living in them (about 77%) are not orphans and child protection workers say such institutions should be an absolute last resort.
“Long-term residential care belongs to a state of mind that all the research and progressive practice and best practice and the UN has abandoned a long time ago,” said Luke Gracie, alternative care manager at the NGO Friends International in Phnom Penh.
The NGO helps marginalised children and youth and their families. Occasionally it takes children into its care temporarily, but Gracie said it was much more important to provide support and enable the child to stay with family if appropriate. (more...)
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