80%+ have living relatives

ORPHANAGE& RESIDENTIALCHILDREN’SHOMES

MAKE A STANDWorld Challenge have partnered

with ReThink Orphanages, pledging to end all partnerships with orphanages and residential

children’s homes

WE BELIEVE that an alternative, family

based model of care offers a more nurturing and

sustaining environment for a child

WE RECOGNISE the harmful abandonment

issues propagated by short term volunteering in these environments

8 MILLION

children worldwide live in residential

care homes

Understand the issues...

Time for action?

Putting the welfare of children first

Get informed, spread the word

Read up, head to these places for more resources...

http://www.rethinkorphanages.org

http://www.wearelumos.org

http://www.bettercarenetwork.org

http://www.thinkchildsafe.org

What next ?

Breaking the cycle of demand

Creating places to call home

Many children who live in children’s homes have suffered abandonment earlier in their lives. Having regular, short-term visitors to their home, with whom they form a bond of friendship, can reignite and exacerbate damaging feelings of abandonment. In any place called home, children have the right to privacy.

Sensitive exit planning, NOW We have committed to withdraw from all residential care homes by the end of September 2017. We will be supporting our partners throughout the process to promote understanding around our decision and equip them with the tools needed to transition to a family based model of care, should they wish to do so.

We are actively sharing our stance on the issue to raise awareness amongst the teachers, students and tourism providers with whom we work around the world. We will facilitate learning opportunities for teams visiting countries where the debate is most acute, empowering them with a knowledge base which aspires to inform their lifelong thinking.

Many of our teams have made positive contributions through infrastructure development for orphanages and care homes in the past, but now is the time to acknowledge the specialist skills needed in this arena that are not suited to our teams. Our community engagement projects are focused on tasks which allow participants to use the skills, capabilities and enthusiasm they do have in a positive collaboration with local community members.

Regrettably institutions are often driven by well-meaning but uninformed support of foreign donors and orphanage voluntourism. At best institutions can become reliant on financial aid, at worst they drive child trafficking. By ceasing to visit orphanages, we are opting to end our contribution to this cycle of demand.

Institutionalised care often has a detrimental effect on a child’s development; increasing their chances of mental illness, attachment disorders and growth and speech delays. It is widely acknowledged that alternative family-based models of care, supporting living relatives or finding foster homes, offer a substantially more nurturing and sustaining approach.

1

3

2

“We’ve taken time to consider our presence in the volunteering arena, exploring the value and appropriateness of what we offer. Taking the lead from global debate and local understanding, we seek to do no harm and are continually analysing our position. We’re proud to be open, to be honest and to be collaborative.”

Pete Fletcher, Global Managing Director