Hug-an-orphan vacations

The growing popularity of short-term international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the disturbing trend of hug-an-orphan vacations. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer at an orphanage or else are persuaded to visit orphanages while on vacation. Volunteers and donors alike should immediately question the motivations and professionalism of any orphanage that allows or promotes this.

Orphanages may purposefully maintain substandard conditions to attract foreign donors

Orphanages can bring in a lot of foreign donations, and the best way to keep those donations rolling in is to keep the children at a substandard level so that any volunteer or donor showing up will see with their own eyes how "critical" it is to donate to the orphanage. This not only brings in immediate money, but may also lead to the donor/volunteer raising money or collecting donated goods from friends and family back home. A portion of these funds may be put into caring for the children while large percentages could easily be pocketed for personal profit with few the wiser. Because most volunteers do not speak the local language, they may be completely unaware of what is actually happening while they are there.

Any orphanage that allows a steady stream of strangers to interact with orphans are not looking out for the best interest of the child

Although foreign volunteers may feel that spending their time playing and interacting with orphans is a great way to give back, in the long run it may do more harm than good. One of the key principles laid out by the United Nations Draft Guidelines for the alternative care of children is the need for reliable long term relationships.

"Decisions regarding children in alternative care, including those in informal care, should have due regard for the importance of ensuring children a stable home and of meeting their basic need for safe and continuous attachment to their caregivers, with permanency generally being a key goal."

An orphanage that regularly allows strangers to interact with children is doing just the opposite. Generally volunteers will only stay at the orphanage for a few days, weeks, or at best months. While at the orphanage most volunteers seek to build emotional bonds with the children so they can feel they made a difference. Unfortunately, although well intended, this leads to a never ending round of abandonment for the orphans. For while some volunteers may continue to correspond with the orphanage after they leave, few are willing or able to maintain a stable emotional bond with the children throughout their childhoods. 

Does the orphanage do background checks on volunteers

While many volunteers have the best intentions at heart, there may be some people that are attracted to vulnerable children for other reasons. By allowing a steady stream of volunteers access to the children an orphanage puts the children at risk of greater harm. 

Hug-an-orphan vacations are never a good idea

While the appeal for volunteers to help at international orphanages may sound real, any orphanage that allows a steady stream of volunteers to interact with the children are not putting the needs of the child first and may in fact be praying on well-intentioned but ill informed foreigners. 

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Related Posts:
Does funding orphanages create orphans?
Be cautious when funding orphanages

Other Resources
A protest against orphanage tourism - Lessons I Learned blog
EthioTube Fly Away Children - The Commericialization of Children
IRIN article West Africa: Protecting children from orphan dealers
IRIN article Africa: Why family is best for orphans
United Nations Draft Guidelines for the alternative care of children
UNICEF - Social Protection Strategy in Eastern and Southern Africa
United Nations working paper Reconstructing well-being after a disaster: Bringing public service to those who need it the most in China
United Nations report Human Rights in Liberia's Orphanages

Comments

[Saundra]

Daniela,

Thanks for your additional comments. I strongly agree that people need to think about what would be acceptable in their own community to give some perspective on what is happening abroad. Yes cultures are different but if you really think about it you can get past the novelty to the core of what a loving and responsible adult would do. Also thanks for clarifying that children in orphanages may not actually be orphans. I go into that extensively in my other two posts on orphanages but did not cover it here and it's worth repeating.

[Daniela]

Thank you for putting this up, Saundra. I think another thing to note is that "orphanages" might not actually have "orphans"! Of all of the orphanages I have come across in Cambodia, there is only one that I know of which exclusively only takes in orphans (as in, children with no parents). Others still use the name orphanage, but act more like a boarding school for underprivileged children or a safe haven for children whose parents have been deemed unfit to raise them. The worst ones, and this is unfortunately more common than people would like to think, RENT kids from their parents. Yes, indeed, it is sick but true.

I have often commented that I would not want to be reincarnated as a cute Cambodian kid. If I was reincarnated as an ugly one, I might have a chance to go to school, but a cute one living near a tourist area might not have the chance to go to school as they would be the most successful beggars. They might be rented by some entrepreneurial person who sees how much money visiting foreigners give to orphanages, so they would be kept looking as poor as possible to attract more funds. The orphanage might outright buy the kids from their family or pay the family a small fee per month to keep their child there as a tourist attraction and fundraising tool.

To so many people, this sounds too inhumane to be true, but often times those are the same people funding these issues. Some of these "orphanages" parade their children around the outdoor bar areas in Siem Reap at night, playing music and handing out fliers asking people to visit their orphanage. It's 11pm at night, and this "orphanage" is traipsing their children, who they are meant to be looking after, around on a street full of drunk foreigners. Doesn't this just seem wrong, period? Well us foreigners seem to forget our wits at home when we travel, thinking what would be wrong for our kids might be ok for others, and there are countless travelers clapping for the little performers, handing $20 bills to their "caretakers" and promising to visit their orphanage during the week.

A note to travelers: THINK AGAIN before you give money to "poor" looking orphanages or before you go visit one which allows any old foreigner in off the street to pet their kids. Would you want this for your kid? If you want to know if a place is legit, ask other people in the community and others working in the education or child-protection fields in the area. They will be able to tell you which places are legitimate.

As a note: any orphanage where all of the employees are from the same family, especially ones which have only men working there, is a place you might want to reconsider. At least in the Cambodia context, this usually means there is very little outside oversight and the family can then run the place like a family business. Support the protection of children by NOT supporting these places.

For more information about protecting children, I recommend visiting http://www.childsafe-international.org/

[Johanna]

I cannot agree more. Orphans already lost their parents and communities look for stability. Seeing people come and go will cause major distress now and in years to come. This cannot be stressed enough!