article spotlight : rethinking orphanages

Loved this article and it's honesty. 

Here in South Africa, I see many non-profit organizations try to be the solution to every need, but Family and The Church are the solutions.

Here are my favorite thought-provoking points from author Kristen Howerton's article, How the Christian orphan care movement may be enabling child abandonment  :

"I recognize that orphanage life is the only option for some children.  However, I think that the overabundance of churches that are building orphanages are harmful in a number of ways:

1. They are taking in poverty orphans. I will say it again: a child should not have to be abandoned at an orphanage to receive aid. If we can feed and educate a child in an orphanage, we can feed and educate a child living at home.

2. They are focused on providing a destination to missions groups. It's sad to say this, but I've heard it from numerous people: the church wants to build an orphanage so they can visit and "love on" orphans when they take short-term trips. NO, PEOPLE. No no no no. Orphans are not mission-trip props.

3. They are motivated by the romanticism of starting an orphanage and how heroic that will make them look. People want their name on the building. It motivates people to donate when they feel ownership. Opening an orphanage looks good on paper. I get it. Still not best practice.

4. They are failing to provide adequate supervision to at-risk children. Orphanages in third-world countries tend to be poorly staffed, with high child-to-caretaker ratios and a high staff turnover. It is rare than an orphanage in a third-world country would meet even the minimum standards to be a licensed childcare facility in the U.S., and yet we are somehow satisfied with sub-standard care because they are poor.

5. They are not focused on permanency planning or family reunification. I cannot tell you have many orphanages I've visited where the children have living parents who even visit on weekends and there is absolutely no plan in place to get the kids back home.

6. They are raising children to be ministry partners instead of psychologically healthy adults. I have often heard orphanage directors talk about how they are raising the "future generation of Christian leaders" by raising kids in an orphanage. Except that our goal for kids should be to raise them into adults with a healthy sense of self . . . and the best way to do that is in a family, not in a "future Christian leader warehouse." "

Check out the full article :

How the Christian orphan care movement may be enabling child abandonment 

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2013/09/how-christian-orphan-care-movement-may.html?m=1

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Melanie Dill
Serving in South Africa
Cell: +27 (0)72 398 1985
www.melaniedill.com