The business of orphanages: where do “orphans” come from?

There is evidence that many of them have been stolen from their parents.

Recently, Friends International launched the “Don’t create more orphans” campaign confronting the issue of orphanages as profit-driven businesses. The number of orphanages in developing nations has dramatically increased in the past decade, but where are the “orphans” coming from?

In 2009, Save the Children reported that internationally four out of five children living in orphanages were not orphans. The report noted that poor families were coerced into giving up their children by unscrupulous institutions hoping to profit from either the residence or trafficking of their children.

These children are known as “paper orphans” - children who have orphan status through falsified documentation. This problem has been detailed by reports in Nepal, Cambodia, Ghana and Uganda, as well as other developing nations.  (more...)

The business of orphanages: where do “orphans” come from?