Why Some Kids With Families Live In Orphanages

Content Warning: Content Includes Sexual Abuse

One of the ways that a lot of kids end up in orphanages rather than living with their families is because staff of orphanages will sometimes go to a struggling single parent or family and offer them an opportunity for their kid to be taken care of, where they can get an education, and never doubt if they will eat three times a day, telling them that they can provide a better life than the family can give them.

Parents can be convinced that they don’t have what it takes, that someone else would care better for their kids because they have more resources, and because of this, they allow their kids to go live in an orphanage.

That is what happened to Denia, a young single mother to three kids. A few years ago, someone she had met from her church told her about the better life her oldest son would have if he were allowed to study and live at an orphanage, and Denia trusted and believed her. Her son went to the orphanage, and Denia visited him regularly. 

During one of her recent visits, Denia learned he had been sexually abused in the orphanage. (According to research, globally, 50% of kids in orphanages suffer physical and sexual abuse.) Denia was outraged and immediately tried to take her son home, but she learned then that she didn’t have the right to take him, that by allowing him to live there, she now had to request custody of her son through the child welfare office. She began trying to get her son back home, which is when our team met her alongside the child welfare staff when doing her home study.

Denia loves her kids and has made huge strides in providing for them. She works full time, her two kids who live with her are in school, and she purchased land where she was able to build a temporary home and has plans to slowly be able to build a home out of concrete blocks as she is able to save.

We hope to help with the construction of her home, as well as meet some of their basic needs and provide therapy for her and her family so that her son can soon go home to be with his family.

Join us in supporting Denia and her three kids so that her oldest son can return to where life really is better.

*this family has given permission to share their picture and parts of their story.