Orphanage

[1] Especially in developing countries, orphanages may prey on vulnerable families at risk of breakdown and actively recruit children to ensure continued funding.

A basket was accordingly hung outside the hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two months to twelve, and a flood of children poured in from country workhouses.

[6] By the early nineteenth century, the problem of abandoned children in urban areas, especially London, began to reach alarming proportions.

The workhouse system, instituted in 1834, although often brutal, was an attempt at the time to house orphans as well as other vulnerable people in society who could not support themselves in exchange for work.

[7] Ragged schools, founded by John Pounds and the Lord Shaftesbury were also set up to provide pauper children with basic education.

In Romania, a decree was established that aggressively promoted population growth, banning contraception and abortions for women with fewer than four children, despite the wretched poverty of most families.

Major charities are increasingly focusing their efforts on the re-integration of orphans in order to keep them with their parents or extended family and communities.

Some have stated it is important to understand the reasons for child abandonment, then set up targeted alternative services to support vulnerable families at risk of separation[12] such as mother and baby units and day care centres.

[13] Research from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is often cited as demonstrating that residential institutions negatively impact the wellbeing of children.

[14] This study demonstrated how the loving attention typically provided to children by their parents or caregivers is pivotal for optimal human development, specifically of the brain; adequate nutrition is not enough.

In countries where orphanages are no longer in use, the long-term care of unwarded children by the state has been transitioned to a domestic environment, with an emphasis on replicating a family home.

[25][26] Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children's development by separating them from their families and that it would be more effective and cheaper to aid close relatives who want to take in the orphans.

Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.

[36] In Nepal, orphanages can be used as a way to remove a child from their parents before placing them for adoption overseas, which is equally lucrative to the owners who receive a number of official and unofficial payments and "donations".

Bulgaria is working hard to get all institutions closed within the next few years and find alternative ways to take care of the children.

[54] According to Baroness Emma Nicholson, in some counties Romania now has "a completely new, world class, state of the art, child health development policy."

The conditions for them are bad because the government does not pay enough attention in improving the living standards for disabled children in Serbia's orphanages and medical institutions.

[59] The committee made recommendations, such as proposals for the adoption of a new "national 14" action plan for children for at least the next five years, and the creation of an independent institution for the protection of child rights.

[citation needed] During the Victorian era, child abandonment was rampant, and orphanages were set up to reduce infant mortality.

Such places were often so full of children that nurses often administered Godfrey's Cordial, a special concoction of opium and treacle, to soothe baby colic.

There appears to be a general recognition by MOLSA and the NGOs with which Pact is working that such care is, at best, a last resort and that serious problems arise with the social reintegration of children who grow up in institutions, and deinstitutionalization through family reunification and independent living are being emphasized.

Statistics on the total number of children in orphanages nationwide are unavailable, but caregivers say their facilities were becoming unmanageably overwhelmed almost on a daily basis.

[78] [79] There are at least 602 child care homes housing 15,095 children in Nepal[82] "Orphanages have turned into a Nepalese industry there is rampant abuse and a great need for intervention.

[82] "At Kabul's two main orphanages, Alauddin and Tahia Maskan, the number of children enrolled has increased almost 80 percent since last January[when?

[89] Pakistan has had sizable economic growth from 1950 to 1999 yet they aren't performing well in multiple social indicators like education and health, and this is mainly due to the corrupt and unstable government.

Zakat is a financial obligation on Muslims which requires one to donate 2.5% of the family's income to charity, and it is specifically mentioned in the Quran to take care of orphans.

[91] With the new use of zakat money from donations to investments it has a lot of potential in benefiting the development as well as the ultimate goal of poverty alleviation.

The parents in local hill tribes may be encouraged to "buy a place" in the orphanage for vast sums, being told their child will have a better future.

[122] Of this number about 80 percent are described as "social orphans", because the parents are either financially destitute, abusive, or addicted to drugs or alcohol and thus are unable to raise them.

[147][148] Following World War II, most orphanages in the U.S. began closing or converting to boarding schools or different kinds of group homes.