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new4now ago

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.

“Recruiters” target families in rural areas with limited access to education for their children. They convince the family that their child will receive a better education and future in a boarding school. The recruiters often collect several children from a village under this guise and then depart with the children to a city.

In the city, the children are often sold into orphanages (if not into another form of exploitation). Once in an orphanage, the children become “paper orphans”, with names changed, death certificates for parents forged and requests for family contact denied.

Families are unable to locate their children due to these changes of identity. If parents are fortunate enough to locate them, they are advised that they have relinquished their rights to the child and are not allowed to see them.

There are detailed cases of children then being placed for inter-country adoption, but there is limited academic attention to what happens to the children who remain in the orphanages. These children are subject to the usual issues associated with long-term institutionalisation, with the added trauma of being forced to lie about their orphanhood.

The orphanage profits in many ways from the presence of these “paper orphans”. Some orphanages encourage volunteers to come and spend time with the children, profiting through the fees they charge and lower care costs due to the free labour that volunteers provide. Others have their “orphans” dance or sing to encourage donations.

These practices are harmful to the child who learns that their worth and value is determined by their orphanhood.

http://theconversation.com/the-business-of-orphanages-where-do-orphans-come-from-38485

adaya ago

paper orphans seems a lot like “unaccompanied minors”

new4now ago

that could very well be

Silsby comes to mind, or that adoption place in florida that was dug up after school shooting

actually, it makes you wonder on everyone's adoptions