Orphanages versus Families

In one of my articles I wrote about street children in Russia. However, homeless children are very acute problem in many countries. They do not have families because of the several reasons and the government’s response to it is different. In some cases government tries to find new families for homeless children and encourages people to adopt them. However, most of homeless children are placed in special institutions for the homeless children or children who have serious problems at their home and cannot stay with parents because of different reasons, such as parent’s substance abuse or crime activity.

There are following group of children who can be placed in these institutions (orphanages):

1. minors who does not have parents as they died

2. children whose parents were deprived of parental rights

3. children whose parents waived their parental rights

4. children who grow up in a boarding school far away from their parents so parents cannot participate in their education

 5. children who live with parents but stay neglected.(1)

However, different international and domestic reports state that life in orphanages has a negative influence on children. First, the sickness rate increases in orphanages. Each country has it is own statistics. For example, in Russia minors who lived in the orphanages became sick twice often than children who lived in families in 2011. Also, has increased the number of children with problems in psychological and mental development, with chronic diseases.  Another problem is the average age when children living in orphanages begin to smoke and drink alcohol – 11 years old.(1)

Usually when a country has social problems connected with children it indicates the presence of other problems. For example, a significant number of children who do not have family and parents can be a result of recent war or weak economy. Therefore in many countries usually the system of orphanages is not well-developed and cannot provide good conditions for the children’s lives. It is well-known fact, these negative factors has a negative influence on them in their future.

Among the most serious disadvantages of the governmental orphanages’ system can be mentioned the following:

1.      Inability of most orphanages to hold a large number of children

2.      Break  of established earlier relationships with other children and teachers during the transferring to another institution as they reach the certain age

3.      Insufficient qualification of people who work with children. Sometimes there are too much children in orphanages and mentors do not have time for everybody

4.      Undeveloped educational methods used in orphanages

5.      Lack of interaction with society leads to the difficulties connected with minors’ inability to adapt to new life in their future when they leave the orphanages and begin adult life. (2)

Nowadays more and more countries realize that the system of orphanages is not effective and it is necessary to transfer these children to families. I agree with this idea. However, there are also some limitations of the transferring child to a new family. In this case government cannot control the children’s lives and thereby to protect it. Mass media tell us a lot of stories when children suffer from their new parents.

I also concern about other problems connected with children’s adoption. Usually, country that has a significant number of children living without families cannot solve this problem by its own population. For example, one of the social goals established in Russian social policy is to eliminate the phenomenon of orphanages in 5 years. Thus, the government has begun to encourage population to adopt the orphanages by creating different financial stimulus. As a result, a lot of children were adopted because of the desire to receive money. Many of these children were neglected and government was needed to replace them to the orphanages again.

Another problem is connected with the adoption of children by the foreign citizens. This problem is acute not only for Russia but for other countries too, for example, China. However, in this case the government cannot control the children’s life on another government’s territory.

Overall, there are two main problems in this situation: the government inability to provide qualitative care about children living without family and the government inability to control children’s life if they adopted.

What is better? Is it possible to solve the problem of orphans by governmental regulation or family help?

References:

Orphans as a social problem.(n.d.). (Translated from Russian). Retrieved from: http://kurs.ido.tpu.ru/courses/social_pedagogics/tema7.htm

Korchagina Julia. Problems of orphanes. (n.d.). (Translated from Russian). Retrieved from PsyCenter.ru: http://www.psycenter.ru/deti-sirotyi-osobyie-deti