Why we need to end the era of orphanages Tara Winkler
These are some photos of me
volunteering in a Cambodian orphanage
in 2006.
When these photos were taken,
I thought I was doing a really good thing
and that I was really helping those kids.
I had a lot to learn.
It all started for me
when I was 19 years old
and went backpacking
through Southeast Asia.
When I reached Cambodia,
I felt uncomfortable being on holiday
surrounded by so much poverty
and wanted to do something to give back.
So I visited some orphanages
and donated some clothes and books
and some money
to help the kids that I met.
But one of the orphanages I visited
was desperately poor.
I had never encountered poverty
like that before in my life.
They didn’t have funds for enough food,
clean water
or medical treatment,
and the sad little faces on those kids
were heartbreaking.
So I was compelled
to do something more to help.
I fund-raised in Australia and returned
to Cambodia the following year
to volunteer at the orphanage
for a few months.
I taught English and bought
water filters and food
and took all of the kids to the dentist
for the first time in their lives.
But over the course of the next year,
I came to discover that this orphanage
that I had been supporting
was terribly corrupt.
The director had been embezzling
every cent donated to the orphanage,
and in my absence, the children
were suffering such gross neglect
that they were forced to catch mice
to feed themselves.
I also found out later
that the director had been physically
and sexually abusing the kids.
I couldn’t bring myself
to turn my back on children
who I had come to know and care about
and return to my life in Australia.
So I worked with a local team
and the local authorities
to set up a new orphanage
and rescue the kids
to give them a safe new home.
But this is where my story takes
another unexpected turn.
As I adjusted to my new life
running an orphanage in Cambodia,
(Khmer) I learned
to speak Khmer fluently,
which means that I learned
to speak the Khmer language fluently.
And when I could communicate
properly with the kids,
I began to uncover some strange things.
Most of the children we had removed
from the orphanage
were not, in fact, orphans at all.
They had parents,
and the few that were orphaned
had other living relatives,
like grandparents and aunties and uncles
and other siblings.
So why were these children
living in an orphanage
when they weren’t orphans?
Since 2005, the number
of orphanages in Cambodia
has risen by 75 percent,
and the number of children
living in Cambodian orphanages
has nearly doubled,
despite the fact
that the vast majority of children
living in these orphanages
are not orphans in the traditional sense.
They’re children from poor families.
So if the vast majority of children
living in orphanages
are not orphans,
then the term “orphanage”
is really just a euphemistic name
for a residential care institution.
These institutions go
by other names as well,
like “shelters,” “safe houses,”
“children’s homes,” “children’s villages,”
even “boarding schools.”
And this problem is not just
confined to Cambodia.
This map shows some of the countries
that have seen a dramatic increase
in the numbers of residential
care institutions
and the numbers of children
being institutionalized.
In Uganda, for example,
the number of children
living in institutions
has increased by more than
1,600 percent since 1992.
And the problems posed
by putting kids into institutions
don’t just pertain to the corrupt
and abusive institutions
like the one that I rescued the kids from.
The problems are with all forms
of residential care.
Over 60 years of international
research has shown us
that children who grow up in institutions,
even the very best institutions,
are at serious risk
of developing mental illnesses,
attachment disorders,
growth and speech delays,
and many will struggle
with an inability to reintegrate
back into society later in life
and form healthy relationships as adults.
These kids grow up
without any model of family
or of what good parenting looks like,
so they then can struggle
to parent their own children.
So if you institutionalize
large numbers of children,
it will affect not only this generation,
but also the generations to come.
We’ve learned these lessons
before in Australia.
It’s what happened
to our “Stolen Generations,”
the indigenous children
who were removed from their families
with the belief
that we could do a better job
of raising their children.
Just imagine for a moment
what residential care
would be like for a child.
Firstly, you have a constant
rotation of caregivers,
with somebody new coming on
to the shift every eight hours.
And then on top of that
you have a steady stream of visitors
and volunteers coming in,
showering you in the love
and affection you’re craving
and then leaving again,
evoking all of those feelings
of abandonment,
and proving again and again
that you are not worthy of being loved.
We don’t have orphanages
in Australia, the USA, the UK anymore,
and for a very good reason:
one study has shown that young adults
raised in institutions
are 10 times more likely
to fall into sex work than their peers,
40 times more likely
to have a criminal record,
and 500 times more likely
to take their own lives.
There are an estimated
eight million children around the world
living in institutions like orphanages,
despite the fact that around
80 percent of them are not orphans.
Most have families
who could be caring for them
if they had the right support.
But for me,
the most shocking thing of all to realize
is what’s contributing to this boom
in the unnecessary institutionalization
of so many children:
it’s us –
the tourists, the volunteers
and the donors.
It’s the well-meaning support
from people like me back in 2006,
who visit these children
and volunteer and donate,
who are unwittingly fueling an industry
that exploits children
and tears families apart.
It’s really no coincidence
that these institutions are largely set up
in areas where tourists
can most easily be lured in
to visit and volunteer
in exchange for donations.
Of the 600 so-called orphanages in Nepal,
over 90 percent of them are located
in the most popular tourist hotspots.
The cold, hard truth is,
the more money that floods in
in support of these institutions,
the more institutions open
and the more children
are removed from their families
to fill their beds.
It’s just the laws of supply and demand.
I had to learn all of these
lessons the hard way,
after I had already set up
an orphanage in Cambodia.
I had to eat a big piece
of humble pie to admit
that I had made a mistake
and inadvertently become
a part of the problem.
I had been an orphanage tourist,
a voluntourist.
I then set up my own orphanage
and facilitated orphanage tourism
in order to generate funds
for my orphanage,
before I knew better.
What I came to learn
is that no matter how good
my orphanage was,
it was never going to give those kids
what they really needed:
their families.
I know that it can feel
incredibly depressing
to learn that helping vulnerable children
and overcoming poverty
is not as simple as we’ve all
been led to believe it should be.
But thankfully, there is a solution.
These problems are reversible
and preventable,
and when we know better,
we can do better.
The organization that I run today,
the Cambodian Children’s Trust,
is no longer an orphanage.
In 2012, we changed the model
in favor of family-based care.
I now lead an amazing team
of Cambodian social workers,
nurses and teachers.
Together, we work within communities
to untangle a complex web of social issues
and help Cambodian
families escape poverty.
Our primary focus is on preventing
some of the most vulnerable families
in our community
from being separated in the first place.
But in cases where it’s not possible
for a child to live
with its biological family,
we support them in foster care.
Family-based care is always better
than placing a child in an institution.
Do you remember that first photo
that I showed you before?
See that girl who is just about
to catch the ball?
Her name is Torn
She’s a strong, brave
and fiercely intelligent girl.
But in 2006, when I first met her
living in that corrupt
and abusive orphanage,
she had never been to school.
She was suffering terrible neglect,
and she yearned desperately
for the warmth and love of her mother.
But this is a photo of Torn today
with her family.
Her mother now has a secure job,
her siblings are doing well in high school
and she is just about to finish
her nursing degree at university.
For Torn’s family –
(Applause)
for Torn’s family,
the cycle of poverty has been broken.
The family-based care model
that we have developed at CCT
has been so successful,
that it’s now being put forward
by UNICEF Cambodia
and the Cambodian government
as a national solution
to keep children in families.
And one of the best –
(Applause)
And one of the best ways
that you can help to solve this problem
is by giving these eight million
children a voice
and become an advocate
for family-based care.
If we work together to raise awareness,
we can make sure the world knows
that we need to put an end
to the unnecessary institutionalization
of vulnerable children.
How do we achieve that?
By redirecting our support
and our donations
away from orphanages
and residential care institutions
towards organizations that are committed
to keeping children in families.
I believe we can make this happen
in our lifetime,
and as a result, we will see
developing communities thrive
and ensure that vulnerable
children everywhere
have what all children need and deserve:
a family.
Thank you.
(Applause)