Schools should not visit or volunteer with orphanages overseas as doing so can inadvertently help to sustain a “harmful” system that puts children at risk of abuse and exploitation.
Irish aid organisation Comhlámh, which is working to promote responsible volunteering, has called on the Department of Education to develop child-safe guidelines for school trips, including guidance not to visit orphanages.
Many Irish schools have supported orphanages through volunteering, visits, and fundraising. However, there is no official record of the number of schools that make overseas trips each year.
In the last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its travel advice, stating that people travelling from Ireland should not visit or volunteer in orphanages. However, this has not been reiterated to schools by the Department of Education.
While well-intentioned, volunteering and visiting in this way helps to sustain an “orphanage industry”, according to Comhlámh.
The group points to international research highlighting how children who grow up in orphanage care typically have lower literacy and numeracy levels and fewer educational attainments than their peers.
There is also growing recognition of the links between orphanages, orphanage visits, and child trafficking.
“The big challenge we are facing in terms of the education sector is that it’s very decentralised,” said Comhlámh co-ordinator Fiachra Brennan.
Often post-primary schools will have different relationships with projects around the world. “There’s a [local] connection there and someone says ‘let’s bring a group of school students on that trip’.”
These settings may go by other names, he added.
“School groups may go on trips where they are visiting what’s called a ‘children’s home’ or other types of residential facilities.” However, the international evidence is “quite clear” that these settings are not the right environment for children, Mr Brennan said.
According to Comhlámh, approximately 80% of the 5.4m children living in orphanages globally have a living parent and even more have extended family that could be supported to care for them.
“Children should be with their families, whether that’s their biological parents. The next step along is in the community, like foster care,” it said.
“There are all sorts of steps along the way while unfortunately, in a lot of cases, all those steps are skipped and children end up in these institutional settings where they are not able to develop in the same way in terms of their connections.
“There’s a big problem as well when they turn 18 and there’s no social structure for them as well so they are vulnerable for other forms of exploitation.
Comhlámh’s current campaign to challenge orphanage volunteering is endorsed by 45 organisations, including the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and the Irish Second Level Students Union (ISSU).
