Category: Orphanage

INTRODUCTION

UNICEF and global partners define an orphan as a child less than 18 years of age who has lost one or both parents to any cause of death. By this definition, there were nearly 140 million orphans globally in 2015 of whom around 40% residing in Africa [1].

In Sudan, about 15 million population are children or under the age of 18 years old that is according to the second Sudan Household Health Survey (SHHS2) conducted by Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health in 2010 [2]. An estimated 10% of Sudan’s children are orphans. To serve the orphaned children, Sudan is implementing the institutional care model that had long been practiced in socio-economically poor countries [3]. In Khartoum, capital of Sudan, the Mygoma Orphanage is a public institutional care center established in 1961 under the name of Maternity and Childhood Hospital and supervised by Federal Ministry of Health to care for abandoned children up to 4 years of age. Currently the center is under the authority of the Federal Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. Children living in orphanages are more likely to have health problems and are at increased risk of infectious diseases [4]. Most of the orphans’ deaths are due to preventable disease and conditions for which interventions are available.

Based on research undertaken in 2003 [5)], evidence indicated that an average of 110 newborn babies were being abandoned in Khartoum every month. Despite the success in improving standards, and increasing the physical space available for children at Maygoma Orphanage, a continued increase in admissions placed the institution under considerable strain. Thus this study is meant to explore the offered health services to the orphaned children at Mygoma Orphanage and to recommend a service model for healthy children within the context of Sudan Health System.

METHODOLOGY

This study is a cross-sectional study based on data collected from medical records of the children using a closed questionnaire and listing the evident amenities while observing the health facilities available at the Maygoma orphanage center.

Applying the equation a total of 73 medical records was the sample size. Random sampling was used to sample the medical records of the orphaned children. Data was collected from the medical records of the period October to December 2015.

A child medical record is valid only for one month and regarded as a reflection of the healthcare services and medication received by the child within the orphanage. The medical record is composed of two pages, the front page consists of 30 sections and each section is designed for the daily follow up of the child’s vital signs (Body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, etc.) and the meals offered to the child each day. The height and weight measurements are measured four times monthly at the end of each week. If the child is receiving any medications should be logged on daily bases. The back page is designed for the clerking, laboratory investigations and diagnosis. At the end of each month, this medical record is kept in the child’s file and a new one is issued for each child at the beginning of the new month.

After data collection, the questionnaires were reviewed and coded. Analysis was done using the SPPS software statistical package version 17.0. Data was presented in the form of frequency tables and cross tabulations; charts and graphs were used where applicable.

The purpose of the study was presented and explained to the personnel in charge at the Federal Ministry of Welfare and Social Security and to Director of Mygoma orphanage. The ministry and orphanage granted two levels of approvals for the study. The result of the data was meant to raise recommendations to progress the healthcare services at the orphanage.

RESULTS

The Identity of the Mygoma Orphanage Center

The center is located at Al Diyum area in the southern part of Khartoum state. It is the only children orphanage in Khartoum State that receives abandoned children from various regions of Sudan. The center’s building consists of a reception, offices for the management personnel, 17 wards, a playground for the children, a kitchen, a milk preparation room, a store room, a clinic, a laboratory for investigations , a pharmacy and a number of bathrooms for men and women separately. The management offices are: a manager office, a public relations office, a Human Resources office, a Social integration office, a Foster Care Adoption office, a Family substitution Office, a Statistics office, a nutrition staff office, a senior doctor office and Immunization office.

The wards are categorized according to the children’s age. The wards vary in space from 16 m to 25 m with a maximum capacity of 20 children for each. Each ward contains 10-20 beds, a cabinet, a Television (TV), an air condition, 2-4 windows, 2-4 lamps, a sink and a desk for the room health services follow up. The wards are cleaned twice every day in the morning and in the afternoon by the orphanage keeper staff.

Demographic and Health Facts of the Orphaned Children

Fifty percent of the children in the orphanage were between the age 1-2 years old. Male children dominate over females where 78% of the children are males. Forty nine percent of the children were residing between 6 months – 1 year at the orphanage.

Regardless of the child’s ward, 98% of the children’s vital signs were not logged on the medical records. However, the child clinical symptoms of a disease are frequently recorded. In comparing the prevalence of the different disease symptoms, 27% had fever as the highest symptom recorded, followed by 12% had diarrhoea episodes during the months of the data collection (Figure 1). However, 4% of the orphaned children had both fever and diarrhoea concurrently. Though, the children had diarrhoea but did not affect their nutritional status reporting 75% of the children were normal (Table 1) while others have improved in weight (Figure 2).

Medical and Health Services at Mygoma Orphanage

The clinic at the orphanage has two resident doctors who are general physicians supervised by a senior physician. Each doctor has a night shift alternatively. Each ward has a monitoring team composed of a general supervisor, a nurse, 3-4 mothers (care givers), a nutritionist and a psychologist. The nurse is responsible of the medical records. A pharmacist is also available who is responsible of the medicine for the orphanage. A medical laboratory assistant who is responsible for the analysis of clinical samples is also present. The orphanage has a system for further health services, which include laboratory investigation of clinical samples and availability of medication. However, 14% of the children had diagnosed diseases, 35% had undergone laboratory diagnosis and 63% received medication reported on the medical records during the period of data collection.

DISCUSSION

Orphaned children at Mygoma Orphanage could be abandoned or homeless or whose parents are on criminal sentence and brought by the police or the child’s parents and relatives. The children. On arrival, each child will have a file that includes a letter from a police office, form number 8 (a form written by the police for the children who are found in the streets or public places), Health cards and Immunization cards all are kept in the statistics office. Each child is named with a name whether the child’s father is known or not .After registration, the child is taken for health assessment and all information about his health status is recorded in a health card which contains the child’s name, gender, where was the child found, the umbilical cord status, in addition to a medical report, growth condition (weight, height etc).

Although, the health services provided at the orphanage are available and accessible yet the orphaned children are suffering inefficiency in the implementation processes. The records revealed a major defect in daily follow up for the child’s vital signs where 98% of these signs were not logged. These vital signs are important to detect any abnormalities in the health of the child, which in return upheave the consequent complications of an illness, exposure to medication and reducing the healthcare expenses. In May 2003, MSF France took over the management of health services in Maygoma orphanage, rapidly increasing the number of professional staff available, and supporting a marked improvement in the quality of care. Prior to MSF’s arrival at Maygoma, nursing staff ratios were approximately one nurse for every 20 children; after 2003, this ratio improved to one nurse for every 3-5 infants. Mortality rates amongst children in Maygoma fell from 75% in 2004 to around 35% by 2005 and to 18% in 2007 [8].

The result of the current study on the nutritional status of the children showed that 75% were normal and 20 % were undernourished. It seems that the nutritional care process of the orphaned children has been improved during the forthcoming years when considering the result of the study conducted at Mygoma orphanage in 2014 [9] stating that 62% of study population were normal, 16.5% were mild malnourished, 14.3% were moderately malnourished and 6.6% were suffering from severe malnutrition. Furthermore, in this study [9] the researcher found an association between diarrhoea and malnutrition where malnourishing was mild. However, in the current study, the nutritional status was not affected by diarrhoea where 8.2% of the children who experienced diarrheal episodes were normal and only 4.1 % were undernourished.

Although, all the Mygoma orphans are under the national scheme of health insurance and are entitled to free healthcare at Khartoum hospitals [8] yet there is a great gap in the follow-up of the children health profile as being evident in the scarce and unscheduled recording of the information in the children’s medical records. The other gap is the continuum of childcare services where there is no proper process for disease diagnosis and medication. As highlighted in Save the Children’s position paper on children in residential care [10], a set of childcare standards was developed primarily intended for managers and practitioners provision of childcare services. The standards are in five main groupings, which are professional practice, personal care, caregivers, resources and administration [11]. Personal care is the focal services at the orphanage and should be undertaken by the institutional care staff. Furthermore, research undertaken by the University of Central Lancashire and the University of the West of England for the Department of Health [12] in 2011, described the importance of reliable, accessible expert Community Children’s Nursing provision to institutional care centers to enable them to care for the children. The research result showed that Children in need of a comprehensive care package and who will experience fewer hospital admissions and fewer visits to accident and emergency departments for crisis management. However, the health cadre of the Mygoma orphanage can integrate needed processes that could be driven from the WHO [13] guidelines issued in the second edition of the Pocket book of hospital care for children. This will reduce childhood mortality that results from diarrhoeal and other febrile diseases besides malnutrition.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study concluded that the required services from facilities (human resources, laboratory, clinic and pharmacy) are available at the Mygoma Orphanage centre. Orphaned children at Mygoma are vulnerable group of the population that need special care. Hence, there is a high demand for health services. Statistically, a medical record is considered a powerful tool that allows the treating physician to track the client’s medical history and identify problems or patterns that may help determine the course of health care. At Mygoma orphanage the primary purpose of the medical record is designed to enable physicians, nurses and nutritionists to provide quality health care to the children. However, proper utilization of these medical records is not implemented. There is improper way of follow-up and scheduled monitoring of the children’s health. Considering the management structure of the Mygoma Orphanage, an integrated model of healthcare for institutionalized children can be developed from Childcare standards issued by Save the children, addressing the importance of Community Children’s Nursing and reviewing the guidelines issued in the second edition of the Pocket book of hospital care for children.

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the view of Guatemala on children and its orphanage system as a whole. The resources that are used in this research are online-articles such as the New Yorker and the New York Times Co. report on the event; and previous scholar review studies on effect of orphanage on orphan, examples are: neglectant in care facility, sex trafficking, paper orphan, etc…

Introduction

The orphanages problem in Guatemala is a recently widespread events, starting with the burning of an orphanage in the country. on March 8, 2017. The incident started with a group of about 55 young girls in the Hogar Virgen del Socorro protesting against the physical abuse they received. The staff promptly punish them by locking the girls in a room, unfortunately the mattresses in the room later catch on fire, killing 40 girls in there. Additional investigation in the facility reveal that not only were these children were being mistreated, in some cases, teenage orphans in the facility would face being sex trafficked, being sold for organ harvesting purpose, or being sexually abused by the staff. Not only did these findings outline the weaknesses of child protection laws in the country, and more importantly, the corruptness of orphanage as a place that treat children as an asset rather than actual human beings.

Lack of concern

The fire tragedy is not the first instances of aggressiveness toward children in Guatemala. In 2009, a four years old named Keneth was found decapitated, and later three sister who was beaten and killed by two grown women, all in an effort to kidnap and sell these children for profit (Steele, 2015) . By 2015, the problem continue with upward of around a thousand kids being reported as missing, and around 20 cases of sexual abuse daily. (Steele, 2015). Children who are without parents have to either face a life ravaging in the street, where they have to fend for themselves, or a life in an orphanage institutions. The orphans who lived at Hogar Virgen del Socorro at the time of the fire were even discovered to be tied up and held in cages, with their head shaved clean (Rosenthal, 2017). As demonstrated, orphanage does not guaranteed a safe environment for children. Neglectances and malpractice are so rampage in institutes, that orphan residing here suffered deeply from mental disability. Family is an important factor for a child’s life, and without one, children mind is mentally damage (Bano, Fitims, & Bilai, 2019). Aside from the mental health risk, abuse is another factor. Placing a child in an orphanage quadruple their chances of being victim of abusive behaviors and sexual violence (Moloney, 2018). This problem is all too common, and it is significantly worse in Guatemala. Because of the lack of regulation implemented, staff could easily take advantage of the children by beating or in some cases similar to the events in Hogar Virgen del Socorro, sexually abuse them. One report showed that adolescent girls at another orphanage had been impregnated by the staff working there and male intern (Goldman, 2017). As adults, staff members can threaten the orphans to remain silent to cover up the wrongdoing.

Trafficking and paper orphans

Not all children living in Guatemala orphanage are orphans, in fact, 4 out of 5 children in orphanages are paper orphan, meaning a child who still have at least one surviving parents (van Doore, 2016). Poor families or wanted to sell their child away because of financial reasons, while others do so because they wanted to protect their child from street gangs (Goldman, 2017). Regardless, agencies would then recruited these children for trafficking purposes, adding to the incriminating business. Parents who later tried to recover their children were threatened and prevented. Out of those who are being trafficked away, the lucky one are used to take advantage of the Western tourism who pay to volunteer with the orphan (van Doore, 2016). Or, used as substitution for international illegal adoption, as evidenced by the fact that Guatemala is the second most common origin for adoption in the U.S. (Crawley, 2013). While the unlucky one are transported to organ harvester or into the sex industry. In 2013, one incident where a woman dressed as a nurse infiltrate one hospital and stole a newborn baby for the purpose of illegal adoption, before promptly abandoning the baby. These actions violated the international Trafficking Protocol the country had signed on 2017, outlining the banned on trafficking children under any circumstances. Despite the money being sent from foreign organizations, looking to help with the injustice, “orphanages and the children receive nothing.” (Moloney, 2018). A study conducted by a professor Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences showed that trafficking are most prevalence in time of crisis or internal turmoils (Razaein, 2016). And indeed Guatemala had recently underwent a civil war killing approximately 200,000 people, giving criminal activity a chance to grow exponentially. Corruption has bypass the law, continuing with the blatant exploitation of the system, giving the illegal business to the chance to flourish in the post-war era in developing countries like Guatemala.

Impact on the children’s behavior

Children’s minds are like a sponge, they soak up their surroundings and imitate them to an extent. In Guatemala, whenever someone is suspected of abusing a child, the town would beat him/ her up without proper trial (Steele, 2015). Because violent nature of the country, children living there, especially those would reside in an orphanage, reported to have more violent outburst, and shown sign of self-harming. At Hogar de Abrigo y Bienestar Integral, an orphanage for disable children, children interaction were ranging from rocking back and forth to biting, hitting and even poking themselves in the eye (Rosenthal, 2017). Additionally, children who have been in instituted care for less than a year is also affected by these problems, and shown sign of improper conduct ( Kaur, Vinmakota, Panigrahi, & Manasa, 2018). A study conducted by three professors at the Gujarat University found that orphans residing in orphanages typically suffer from social related disorder such as anxiety, social phobia, and conduct disorder (Bano, Fitims, & Bilai, 2019). This connect makes perfect sense considering that orphanage usually have to deal with a large amount of children at a time, and to provide emotional need for each and everyone of them is near impossible. Nevertheless, these children academically performed worse than their peers, and lack prosocial behavior (Kaur, Vinmakota, Panigrahi, & Manasa, 2018). On the other hand, children who are victims of trafficking suffer similar mental issues along with physical problems regarding memory, stomach pain, and headache (Razaein, 2016). This is due to the problems of poor nutrition and psychological stresses that bring during the trafficking process (Razaein, 2016).

Conclusion

Children in Guatemala are facing serious life-threatening situations from abuse to lasting trauma. Fixing the orphanage system could be a big leap for Guatemala as well as the rest of the world, especially seeing how broken it is. More governmental involving need to happen, by placing stricter regulations, and assign more enforcer to implement the actions. In theory, with stricter government control, all of the problems of paper orphans, abuse, trafficking, and violent could be greatly reduced. However, with the country’s current state,the freshly recovered government would not have the capability to do so. That leaves the responsibility to the people and organization to do their part in the community by educating the public about the current issues, and work together to fix them.

Philippines is one of the overpopulated countries in Asia (Angeles, Pagkalinawan, Vergara, Villafranca, 2018). One of the country’s problem facing nowadays is the need to address its status on the abandoned, neglected, and orphaned children. In line with this, it creates emotional and behavioral problems to the children since they are exposed to abuse and are lacking love from their parents which can also affect the enjoyment and the attitude of not showcasing their skills. Some of the orphanage here in the Philippines lack facilities in terms of recreational activities and fundamental education for the children because of insufficient funds and donation that the orphanage collects, which can lead to the life of a children be miserable.

Children living in the orphanage are less fortunate since they are lacking opportunities to learn some life skills that the other children learn from their biological parents or from their relatives. In some point, they are taught with different life skills through schools, churches, and some organizations that are provided by the orphanage (Moora, 2013).

According to Priyardarshini A (n.d.), the prevalent of children living in the streets of cities scattered all over the world are estimated in 10 million. Children and young adolescence that are housed in such residential care center are emotionally disturbed, often have poorly knowledge about education, and are very likely engaged in risky behaviors. In the Philippines, it is estimated 1.8 million Filipino children are being abandoned and neglected. The need for teaching life skills for the children in the orphan will help them know or give them an idea of what is happening outside the orphanage and help promote well-being and competence in young people as they face the realities of life.

Curry (2015) stated that an innocent child is the victim of most neglection. Seeing a child in an orphanage can make someone realizes the value of family. She also added that even if an orphanage is labelled as a “good orphanage”, it is still an orphanage and it is not considered as the best placement for a child.

For Dr. Jonice (2018), similar to Curry’s statement, it is the child who is emotionally and financially affected by this situation, for this may also affect the long-term run, psychological and behavioral effect of the child as they experienced problems with anger or grief after the loss of a parent that can lead to a child’s low self-esteem. Moreover, the parent may also be considered for they will encounter an extreme guilt and shame by leaving their child on the orphanage that can cause them to have a pattern of feeling, deeply irresponsible and worthless kind of parent and as human.

In the Philippines, due to high unemployment rate of nearly 5%, the primary causes of child abandonment could rely on poverty or financial hardship wherein sustaining payable budget requirements daily cannot uphold what currently a family has. Moreover, being a single parent as result of self-doubt can be a factor for parenting in cases where parents push to abandon their children although it may be not an excuse, it may be an important factor to consider when trying to explain to a child why the other parent chooses to be uninvolved. Another is the lack of sexual education and poor knowledge about family planning that regulates number of children that could be sustained by the parents may also add up to the causes of the problem since sex education is necessary to implement in schools, colleges, universities for enhancing their knowledge, attitude and behavior towards sex and the consequences of having sex before marriage; this may result for their protection against unwanted pregnancies. In addition, child having some form of disability, pregnancy as a result of rape or abuse and restriction regarding access to abortion in the country due to the ideology of being a pro-life nation are also the things that may consider in leaving a child that causes the government and society be responsible upon this issue. On the other hand, religious and beliefs also play an important role in this problem, if the parents are dedicated believers, at least they may think before they want to engage in sexual activities and the decision, they make in abandoning their child (Essays, U.K., 2018).

Wolf (2019) says that parents who abandoned their children believed that they are not equipped of being a parent emotionally and financially. Some parent says that they are too young to have a child. He added that self-doubt can be the common reason for a parent to fully abandoned his or her child, but this will never be an excuse to give your child away. There is no acceptable reason for a parent to abandon his or her child, there is always a way in order to survive living.

According to Professor Bilson (2017), the life of a child in an orphanage is not what the usual thought it was. Many of the eight million children who are in an orphanage experience not having a bedtime stories, no hugs, no reassurance from a mother or a father at light outs, and the saddest part is there is no music. No laughter and chatter that an ordinary child must experience while growing up in a family. That’s why the children are more likely to be pretending that they are happy but inside they are not.

CFCA Resource Sheet (2014) stated that abusing and neglecting children can lead to a wide range of adverse consequences. Abusing a child can cause severe trauma and the child might rebelled, this can destroy a child’s life. In the other hand, neglecting or abandoning children can make them feel unloved. They might think that they are burden in their own family, this also may lead to trauma and depression that is common on children nowadays.

Children who are at an orphanage who do not experience living an ordinary child’s life are exposed to silence. Exposure to silence at a younger age can have change a child’s future life. Children who do not pick up suffers from pain that they kept on hiding. “A silent child isn’t always a happy one” (Professor Bilson, 2017).

If most of the parent consider family planning, there is a less chance that a child can experience being abused or abandoned. Family planning must be the priority of every parent not just in the Philippines but also around the world. Seeing a child suffer is one of the worst heartaches that a parent can feel. If given that the parent is too young to have a child, he or she must seek help from their relatives for the child not to be abandoned and can live the life he or she deserves.

On the other hand, the orphanage must consider all the things that an ordinary child must have or experience. Aside from proper education and church, the children must explore their talent by exploring and developing their individual crafts. They must have an activity that can boost the individual talents of each children. The orphanage must be open for visitors who can give help to their orphan children. The visitors, at some point, can educate the children by teaching how to play musical instruments, sing, dance, act, draw, or paint. Through this, the children might lessen the though of being abandoned and they will feel that they are loved and appreciated.

References

1. Angeles, L. A., Pagkalinawan, A. A., Vergara, J. M., Villafranca, M. (2018). Uncertain Living: Challenges of Orphans in the Philippines. Retrieved from: http://philair.ph/publication/index.php/jpair/article/view/612
2. CFCA Resource Sheet (2014). Effects of child abuse and neglect for children and adolescents. Retrieved from: https://aif.gov.au/cfca/publications/effects-child-abuse-and-neglect-children-and-adolescents
3. Curry, E. (2015). 5 Things You Should Know about How Orphanage Life Affects Children. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.amp/s/adoption.com/5-things-know-about-how-orphanage-life-affects-children/amp
4. Dr. Jonice, W. (2018). How to Overcome Abandonment Issues From Childhood. Retrieved from: https://drjonicewebb.com/the-3-main-issues-of-the-abandoned-child-in-adulthood/
5. Essays, U.K. (2019). Child Abandonment: Causes and Responses. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/young-people/the-abandoned-babys-cases-young-people-essay.php?vref=1
6. Moora, A.J. (2013) Impact of Life Skill Training Program on Livelihood of Orphan-headed households in Nyando Division, Kisumo Country, Kenya. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org
7. Priyardarshini A, H. (n.d.) Life skill building in Orphan and Vulnerable Children through. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/artseducation/pdf/fp204hema priyadarshini.pdf
8. Professor Bilson, A. (2017). The babies who suffer in silence: how overseas orphanages are damaging children. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/babies-suffer-silence-oversease-orphanages-damaging-children/amp/

According to the UNICEF (United Nations International children’s Educational Fund ) an orphan is a child under 18 years of age who has lost one or both parents by any cause of death. Statistics show that there were nearly 4000 million orphans in the world in 2015, These unfortunate children are housed in orphanages where these orphans are expected to be provided with their basic needs, care and protection. However, in many instances, these expectations prove to be unmet and in fact, these safe havens themselves turn out to be places of despair or even horror. In South East Asian countries, in particular, orphanages have created grave problems to the child’s emotion and behavior. In Sri Lanka, there are about 21000 orphans according to the latest statistics and the number of orphanages too have increased. These are run either by the government or non-governmental organizations(NGO). It’s the responsibility of the state as well as the society to assure these unfortunate children of security, care and guidance. Unless timely action is taken, this situation may lead to serious problems in the society. Where these unfortunate children often enter as insecure, insensitive, and even undesirable individuals.

The reasons for this increase are many and varied. For instance, the 30-years war and the Tsunami have left behind thousands of children without parents. In addition to these tragic events many are abandoned children by irresponsible or even helpless young parents who find it difficult to tend to their needs, or by those who had ventured into the cities and towns from their villagers in search of jobs. Globalization has led to the emergence of numerous industries, like for instance, Katunayake zone, Biyagama zone and other similar industries and factories which provide jobs for these young people. These young people away from home may be compelled to live in places and situations which may get them into unfortunate situations resulting in unwanted pregnancies. The result may be unwanted offspring who may finally end up in orphanages.

In the orphanages of the Asian regions, there have been many reports of cruelty, child abuse, neglect and even incidents of criminal activities. Children need affection, security, assurance and guidance specially in their childhood. While some of these institutions strive to provide all these, many tend to overlook these requirements. In recent years, there have been many reports of incidents of cruelty towards these children. Very often kids are given very hard punishment for their normal childhood mischievous behavior which would have been dealt with firm admonition by one’s own parents. Punishment meted out at the orphanages may include physical tortures like beatings, forced actions that are painful (kneeling for long hours) exposure to harsh weather (standing for long hours in the scorching sun) and starvation. Another cruel measure taken is emotional or mental tortures like confinement to dark and closed-up rooms with the threat of danger from supernatural beings (like monsters, ghosts). These inhuman treatments would surly have serious phycological effects on children. This would invariably turn these children into cruel individuals with behavioral and emotional problems.

The basic requirements for a physical and mental developed child who grows into a balanced, confident and individual are parental love and affection, care and guidance. Parental love is very difficult to define in words. The philosopher Roger Scruton (2013) says that in its highest form, parental love “…comes as a gift, freely bestowed on another person…” unfortunately orphans miss the love which could be given only by their own parents. Many of these children much emotional damage. They may be depressed and anxious. They might ask from where the difficulties came from. The answer is that damage comes almost always from early childhood. They need very responsible parents who looked after them with sensitivity and kindness. With out this kind of responsible love, children are often wounded for life of child psychology. One of the world leading experts Edward Tronick, Director of child development unit, Harvard university, together with his team is responsible one for the great experiments in history of psychology known as ‘Still face’ experiment. He said that young babies are extremely responsive to the emotional and the social interaction that they get from their parents. Parents can show their love through touch and a hug and the children feel loved. There is not any substitute for it. “No memory is as powerful as that of a loved childhood.” (Family Dynamics,2013) that means parents love should be the part of the child’s life. Other important are parental care and guidance.

Opponent can say, there are cases where children brought up by their own parents lack affection and care entitled to them from their parents. The reason may be that parents do not have sufficient time to spend with their children. Their financial situation may require both to work. Further, parents lead very busy and stressful lives themselves. As a result, they have neither time nor the energy to give to their children. With the emergence of modern technology, people tend to spend dinner time on their phone. Though, they parents have the good intention of providing for their child’s future, they simply do not realize that what the child needs most is their parental love and affection. They do not realize how it affect their child’s behavior and emotion. Many parents are compelled to leave their children in the care of maids or care-takers. As a result, children may be faced with neglect lack of affection, and even danger. However, these cases are fewer compared to the case of neglect at many orphanages. For instance, in SOS Children’s village orphanage in Pakistan, there were orphans who miss parental love. Even with adequate facilities, individuals still miss parental love. Austrian psychoanalyst and physician Rene Spitz proposed children in orphanages, who missed important parental relationships suffered from lack of love to a great extent. (Hughes, 2013). Another example in the study carried out by Jawaid, a child psychologist refers to the “potential hidden consequences” of a child’s childhood experiences in an orphanage. He had conducted a study which separated from his / her parents. He claims that such traumatic experiences cause “subtle biological alterations”. He suggests that such charges many even have their repercussion on their own children as well. (Curry, 2019)

Secondly, the General environment in an orphanage would inevitably have its impact on its inmates. Izidor Ruckel was one of thousands of children discovered living in terrible conditions in a Romanian orphanage. The orphans are under strict schedule. Where they have to do each an everything according to a time schedule. They are compelled to do their duties even if they suffered minor ailments such as aches and pains, which prevent them from meeting their time schedules. The authorities at the orphanage may not be able to ident such genuine individual problems, and give concessions. The Many of orphans suffered mentally, physically and emotionally because of it. even individuals had physical pain they might no do the work according the time schedule. In my personal experience, our parents are adopting a little boy, whose mother is not in a position to bring him up. When my mother gives some work to do him, sometime he does it and sometimes does not. So we understand his situation and gave him new activities which he enjoys doing. If he is compelled to carry on with the earlier activity, he would probably hate such activities for life. However, Orphanages do not make such considerations.

Some may argue that regimental life style early in life would prepare a person to be a systematic and focused and even ambitious individual. Also, some might say they are good with time management, giving priority to their own work. However, this is not the case in the majority of the orphanage unlike in a home where the parents would know their own child’s temperament and emotional levels and act accordingly, in an orphanage this may not be possible due to the numbers.

Thirdly, the care givers in an orphanage plays a pivotal role in the upbringing of the children. Very often they lack of parental skills and basic consideration required for this role. The damagers that with some orphanages are a matter of concern. There have been incidence of verbal, psychical and sexual abuse in many of these orphans. Care givers need psychological knowledge to handle the individuals. They have to show affection. Unfortunately, many orphanages are unable to provide skilled works. For instance, if the child does something wrong they Punish him/her meted out may include physical torture like beatings, forced actions that are painful (kneeling for long hours) exposure to harsh weather (standing for long hours in the scorching sun) and starvation. Another cruel measure taken is emotional or mental tortures like confinement to dark and closed-up room with the threat of danger from supernatural beings (like monsters, ghosts). These inhuman treatment would surly have their adverse effects on children. This would directly affect a child emotionally and behaviorally. They following is an example of such a situation. A boy who was descales was betted severely by a belt-wielding care taker that care taker hit him sprawling to the floor. He, then beat his victim with the metal hook of his belt. Till the boy started bleeding form his head. When he saw the blood, the abuser quickly drag the boy to the Barth room and poured the water on to the bleeding head, holding the boys hand to the wound to stop the bleeding. The explanation given was that he had to punished the boy because he was troublesome (General new,2019).

Clearly this criminal offence should have sent him to Jail. However, while no action would have been taken, the victim would no doubt bear the sears not only physical but also psychological a very long time. This incidence shows the importance of employing highly skilled personnel with the required temperament since they are the once who shape the personality of the young once. Once some may argue that such a situation however cruel and inhumen could on the other hand developed an in a strength and independence in a child and make him emotionally stronger. However, this quality may not be an ingredient for a rounded and balanced personality who could maintain healthy relationships, based on trust an affection.

The fourth and another more serious form of abuse is sexual abuse. We hear of many cases of incidents of child sexual abuse in these orphanages. This could be in the form of homosexual abuse or heterosexual abuse. The offenders of this crimes are usually the people in authority in these homes like care givers, teachers and occasionally even priests. There are also reports of children being sent out for sexual favors out side the orphanage by these unscrupulous individuals. These traumatic experience, no doubt, leave long lasting or life long effects on the victims who themselves may turn out to be sexual offenders themselves. Moreover, these child victims may also in their frustration and despair, take to prostitution in their later years. In the case of homosexual abuse, the victims may turn out to be homosexuals in their later years. All this could pose danger to the institutes of marriage and pro creation, leading to crisis in the society.

Children who have suffered abuse over a long period of time show slower physical and mental growth; for instance, they may become stunted and or low in their mental ability. Also it is a known fact that mothers milk boosts the baby’s immunity against diseases. Further, there is no doubt that parental love for their own child cannot be matched with the care given by care-givers at the orphanages. Sarah Philips (1998) along-time orphanage volunteer has this to say “It took me a while to realize when I went to the baby houses that they only show you all the healthy ones. Then there are the rooms where the others are just lying there. They are all dying, lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, generally fed on their backs. I have seen them putting the bottle of boiling hot food into children’s mouths. It must be burning, but they are too hungry and just swallow it.” This shows that, a relationship between a child and his or her mother or father will be very personal where there is true understanding and tolerance. Moreover, the best place that provides guidance and protection would be home. I can presente my personal experience to bring out this point. When my brother was a toddler, my mom noticed that there was a slight squint in his left eye. This was immediately taken care of with consultation with the family doctor who referred my brother to a specialist and the problem was rectified at the beginning itself. This is because only a mother or father would be able to notice even the smallest of health issues in his or her child. Thus, timely intervention saved my brother from visual issues in his adulthood. A problem like this may have been overlooked in a less personal environment like an orphanage. The reason for this situation could be the lack of resource personnel in these homes or a total lack of consideration on the part of the workers, or even mere cruelty on the part of the workers Children who are deprived of their basic requirements, in other words, neglected, tend to grow up as insensitive, insecure irresponsible adults who cannot give affection to others.

Child abuse is another serious social problem in the present society. When it comes to child abuse, we talk about physical and mental abuse which had already been discoursed in the previous paragraph. However another more serious form of abuse is sexual abuse. We hear of many cases of incidents of child sexual abuse in these orphanages. This could be in the form of homosexual abuse or heterosexual abuse. The offenders of this crimes are usually the people in authority in these homes like care givers, teachers and occasionally even priests. There are also reports of children being sent out for sexual favors out side the orphanage by these unscrupulous individuals. These traumatic experience, no doubt, leave long lasting or life long effects on the victims who themselves may turn out to be sexual offenders themselves. Moreover, these child victims may also in their frustration and despair, take to prostitution in their later years. In the case of homosexual abuse, the victims may turn out to be homosexuals in their later years. All this could pose danger to the institutes of marriage and pro creation, leading to crisis in the society.

The following news item from the Sunday times, (2018). The writer Shaadya Ismail, reports the following incidence in a which had place in an orphanage in Kurunagala. An orphanage is a place potential to children who lack security but institution in kurunagala has lured out to be a horror house. Police investigation a complaint that 18 boys all in their early or mid-teens had been sexually abused by workers who use to visit the orphanage by works who use to visit the orphanage.

Finally, many of our orphanages tend to be ideal breeding grounds for criminal activities. When food or other items and facilities are inadequate as is the case in most of our orphanages, children may be forced to help themselves to whatever they could lay their hands on. This may be to fulfill their very basic requirements like even food. When I was in grade 3, there was a student from a near-by orphanage who attended my class. She used to occasionally steal food and other stationary items from her classmates. When, oneday, she was caught in the act of slealing food, she was admonished by the teacher. Consequently, not only was she ostracized by her classmates, but she was also suspected when anything went missing in class. Being labeled a “thief” even when she was not guilty of a theft would surely make her a thief for life. In this case, since she had already gained a reputation as a thief, she has nothing to lose if she continued to steal. Thus, such environments of depravity prove to be ideal breading ground for crime. In some other cases the authorities who manage these orphanages may comprise unscrupulous individuals who may make use of these innocent children involved in prostitution or even drogue related crimes. Exposure to such an environment would surely create a criminal environment in these orphanages, breeding more criminals among these children.

To concludes it is evident that certain conditions should be met to run a safe and healthy orphanage. They are primarily, love and affection, a healthy and relaxed environment, professionally skilled care givers, personal security and guidance adequate basic facilities. These unfortunate children need all these factors in the right proportions in order to grow up into healthy, happy and balanced individuals, who are strong enough to meet the many challenges they need to meet in life. It is very important that the state allocates the necessary facilities as well as savvies the supervision to ensure the smooth running of these intuitions.

References

1. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/narratives/marias-story
2. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/parents-emotional-trauma-may-change-their-children-s-biology-studies-mice-show-how
3. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Torture-Home-4-Orphan-child-eats-own-faeces-Man-of-God-in-abuse-galore-760418#

Australia is the largest funder of residential care for children in South East Asia (Knaus, 2018). In 2017, Australia became the first country to declare orphanage trafficking a form of modern slavery (Australian Government, 2017). As a result of an Inquiry into whether Australia should have a Modern Slavery Act, the ‘Hidden in Plain Sight Report’ detailed extensive evidence submitted by Australian and international non-government organisations and experts on Australia’s contribution via funding and voluntourism to the over-institutionalisation of children globally. A particular focus of the Report related to the recruitment of children into residential care facilities for the purpose of exploitation and profit, a process known as orphanage trafficking (van Doore, 2016).

In seeking to respond to orphanage trafficking, the Inquiry Committee made a series of recommendations to amend policy and legislation, including recommendations to criminalise aspects of funding and volunteering in orphanages (Australian Government, 2017). This paper outlines the steps that Australia has taken since the release of the Hidden in Plain Sight Report to stem the flow of funding and volunteers to orphanages overseas. It outlines how policy and legislative reform have taken place in the regulation of charities, voluntourism and modern slavery to attempt to impact Australia’s unwitting participation in the ‘orphanage industry’ (Cheney, 2015). The paper details government reform from advertising and awareness campaigns (DFAT, 2017) to the requirement to report on orphanage voluntourism in corporate supply chains (Australian Government, 2019).

More broadly, while it argues that a spotlight on orphanage trafficking has enabled child protection advocates to re-enliven and re-educate policy makers and legislators on the harms of institutionalisation, it also highlights that this approach has not been without critics. In particular, child protection experts warn that a concentration on addressing orphanage trafficking and ‘scam orphanages’ can obfuscate awareness of the nuances of alternative care (Nhep & van Doore, 2018), and also that employing trafficking discourse to address the social issue of the over-use of institutional care of children may not be beneficial (Bearup, 2019).

Nevertheless, other countries are following Australia’s lead, including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, who have each indicated an appetite for reform in the areas of modern slavery and orphanage voluntourism. This paper traces the emerging policy and legislative reforms that are being undertaken by these countries and recommends further development to ensure that funding and finances are appropriately directed to divest from orphanages and instead support burgeoning care reform in the South Asian region.

Dr Kathryn (Kate) E. van Doore is an international child rights lawyer and an academic at Griffith Law School, Australia. Kate currently researches the intersections of child rights, institutionalisation and human trafficking. Kate’s work includes publishing the first legal argument under international law for the recruitment of children into orphanages to be regarded as a form of child trafficking. She was awarded the Anti-Slavery Australia Freedom Award for her research and advocacy on orphanage trafficking in 2017. Kate works with governments, NGO’s and companies on their approaches and responses to orphanage tourism and trafficking. She is a co-founder and Board Director of Forget Me Not Australia, an international non-governmental organization focused on child protection and family reunification for children residing outside of parental care. Kate is a member of the ReThink Orphanages Global Working Group, and a Steering Committee member of ReThink Orphanages Australia. She sits on the Advisory Board for the International Bar Association’s Presidential Taskforce on Migrant and Refugee Children, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Children, Law & Ethics, Cumberland Law School, Samford University, USA.

Memory and trauma have an immense power over the human psyche. The effects of a traumatic event can last well into a subject’s life, and may affect them in ways in which they are not aware of. The Orphanage (2007) by J.A. Bayona examines how traumas of the past can haunt the events of the present, and how an individual can come to terms with trauma by interacting with it. The film follows Laura, who was an orphan. As an adult, she adopts a child of her own, Simón; she buys her childhood orphanage and converts it into a home for her son and for children in need. Simón gets lost, which sends Laura on a tedious search that allows her to uncover many heinous truths about the orphanage she once loved. When she finds Simón dead in the house, trauma is revealed from her grief and within the very foundation of the orphanage, which taints her previous memories of the home. Laura deals with her troubles in a way that is in line with a Freudian approach to trauma. Freud seeks to categorise and unveil trauma, allowing hauntological histories to be exhumed in order to mend psychological pain. The Spanish public dealt with trauma similarly, as their interaction with the horrors of the Spanish Civil War was repressed for years. The memory of the war encouraged the persistence of trauma, which damaged the national psyche. Learning to condemn their violent past and make amends with it contributed to the way Spain was able to grow from their trauma. Reliving memories and the traumas associated with them can inhibit the individual, while simultaneously encouraging the process of coming to terms with traumatic events because the subject is no longer repressing them.

Memory and trauma have a paradoxical relationship: one can help draw out the other, while still presenting a hinderance. As Freud says, remembering traumas gives the subject the ability to heal; however, traumas also have the capability to destroy the very memory that seeks to heal said trauma. Freud’s intention, then, is ‘to discover how our past, despite being irretrievably absent, maintains the power of its presence; and, to the extent possible, to devise means for undoing this power.’ The only way to heal one’s traumas is to dig up the past and make amends with it. Laura is sent on a search through her home with clues that Simón and the orphan children leave her. She is, in a way, uncovering the past, since Simón is already dead as she is playing the game. In discovering her son’s dead body, she can find closure in knowing that her son is no longer lost. Freud explains that ‘recovering lost history is therapeutic. Restoring lost links to the past produces relief, liberating the patient from some of their burdensome past.’ She finds him, faces her trauma, and realises that the only way to cope with it is to be reunited with her past forever.

As Freud explains, ‘memory of the trauma… [act] like a foreign body which long after its entry must continue to be regarded as an agent that is still at work.’ Trauma can linger in the mind much like the ghosts of the orphan children – a snapshot of trauma suspended within the walls of the orphanage – remain within the house long after they’ve passed. Jacques Derrida calls this concept hauntology. He says, ‘after the end of history, the spirit comes by coming back [revenant], it figures both a dead man who comes back and a ghost whose expected return repeats itself, again and again.’ To Derrida, hauntology is the persistence of the past: memories of trauma can be both living and deceased. Laura experiences a haunting when she meets the deceased remnants of the children she once knew at the orphanage. The orphans are an example of a traumatic event that stands suspended in time, transcending the boundaries of physical presence. Laura experiences a memory that becomes a reality because of trauma: a theme of unfinished business. Because the ghosts manifested in relation to the trauma they endured, there must be a purpose to their haunting. Laura is meant to take care of them along with Simón; here, trauma presents itself as a physical representation, one in which seeks to be fixed. Derrida says it is important ‘to speak to the specter, to speak with it, therefore especially to make or to let a spirit speak.’ Ignoring a haunting would be an error, because hauntings are representations of a past that needs repairing. In The Orphanage, Laura interacts with the ghosts of the orphans. She plays ‘Un, dos, tres, toca la pared,’ with them, and participates in the game of clues which she played with Simón once. In following the ghosts and interacting with them, as Derrida suggests, Laura is uncovering aspects of her past. She is linking the memory of Simón’s living form to the trauma of his lost existence. Laura only finds her son because of her interaction with the orphans; therefore, she is able to face her trauma and live forever in the land of her memories with Simón and the orphan children. Hauntology is at the core of the film’s approach to the past; the film not only represents haunting with the physical presence of ghosts, but also comments on the hauntological aspects of trauma that Spain endured during the Franco years.

For thirty-nine years, Spain had to live with the constant threat of the Franco rule. It is estimated that about 500,000 people died during the reign of Spain’s military dictator, Francisco Franco. The devastating destruction of the regime still weighs heavily on Spain’s national conscience. After the Spanish Civil War, Franco worked tirelessly to censor the Spanish population in a way that was beneficial for his regime. Spanish neurologist, Carlos Castilla del Pino, characterises ‘the Spanish inhabitant’ after the war as having little ‘perception of [reality] and refined his/her sense of this to adapt to the rules of the game of the existing sociopolitical context.’ Repression was so ingrained in Spanish society that Franco succeeding in completely altering the way society thought and felt. After Franco passed and democracy was established, ‘there was not an organised demand, not even an articulated discourse, addressing unwanted legacies from the violent past’ for years. Spain had to live with its repressed trauma, which lead to a feeling of lost identity. In The Orphanage, Bayona creates characters that are influenced by their past and ‘represent future possibilities for change or transcendence’ within Spain. In 2007, the Ley de Memoria Histórica (Law of Historical Memory) was passed by José Juis Rodríguez Zapatero, which called for the recognition of those affected by the Franco regime, and encouraged the digging up of mass graves. This was the same year that The Orphanage was released, which offers a parallel between Spain’s sociopolitical context and the need to explore a new identity: one that is shrouded in remembrance and healing. The presence of ghosts within The Orphanage ‘confirm the persistence of ghostly hauntological traces within the national psyche,’ and the need to recognise this past history and trauma in order to heal.

The film also has elements of intertextuality, with its reference to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. For the majority of the film, Laura searches for her lost son, thus, Simón is painted as a lost boy. The theme of lost history resonates with the orphanage, Laura’s muddled past, and the loss of history and identity that Spain experienced during and after its years of Francoism. At the end of the film, Simón and the orphans become the lost boys and girls of Neverland, because they will forever live in a land of memories, unable to physically grow old. Laura becomes Wendy, the one who lived outside of Neverland and grew up; however, Laura is able to reunite with Neverland because of her choice to take her life after confronting the trauma of losing her son. Bayona is able to rearrange an English classic in order to encourage the psychological healing of Spain’s relationship with their violent past.

Memory and trauma influence an individual in ways that are hidden deep within the human conscience. Freud acknowledges the power of the past; traumatic events affect the individual, whether that affect is obvious or not. The only way to heal is to seek to unearth repressed traumatic experiences – to confront the ghosts within our psyches. Bayona creates a narrative of humans who are influenced strongly by their past. It keeps the orphans tied to the place in which the events of their trauma took place. The orphans seek to heal from the violence they experienced in the orphanage, therefore, Laura is used to help them heal; but, Laura also uses the orphans as a way to come to terms with the grief she feels from losing her son. Her interaction with them is what leads her to her son’s dead body, and ultimately leads her to the decision to join her son and the orphans in a world that is reminiscent of Neverland – a world that is surrounded by immortal memories.

Bibliography

1. Bayona, J.A., The Orphanage (Spain: Rodar y Rodar Cine y Televisión, 2007)
2. Castilla del Pino, Carlos, “Extra” in “Problemas psicológicos de una generación,” El País, (1985), 18.
3. Derrida, Jacques, Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International, trans. by Peggy Kamuf (New York & London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 1-30
4. Freud, Sigmund, and Josef Breuer, Studies on Hysteria, ed. & trans. by James Strachey (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000), pp. 1-26
5. Kennedy, Roger, “Memory and the Unconscious,” in Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates, ed. by Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz, 1st edn (New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2010), pp. 179-97
6. León, Pablo Sánchez, “Overcoming the Violent Past in Spain, 1939–2009,” European Review, 20 (2012), 493.
7. McDonald, Keith, and Roger Clark, Guillermo Del Toro: Film as Alchemic Art (New York & London: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. 492-502
8. Richards, Michael, “From War Culture to Civil Society: Francoism, Social Change and Memories of the Spanish Civil War,” History & Memory, 14 (2002), 93-120
9. Terdiman, Richard, “Memory in Freud,” in Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates, ed. by Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz, 1st edn (New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2010), pp. 93-108