Children often land up in orphanages due to numerous reasons, varying from one location to the other. While families of some struggle to cope up to make ends meet, others often land up at orphanages due to cultural pressures, abuse, and negligence. Some families choose to abandon their children at unknown places to be rescued later. While others intentionally leave their children at the doorstep of orphanages to be adopted.
More than 140 million children have termed orphans based on one or the other definitions.
But whatever be the reason, children often tend to lose out on a lot when staying at orphanages. Their personal, social, and mental well-being gets affected a lot that is truly reflected in their adult life later on.
Some scars that orphanages leave on children are:
1. Deprivation from a sense of permanency
With caregivers coming in and going out, along with peers as well, children lack the closeness of relationships and love and care with close and dear ones. They feel that nothing is permanent in their lives, not even their families or parents.
2. Educational and health deprivation
It’s not that kids are deprived of food, but they tend to not get the authenticity and affection, thus sufficient nutrients for their physical and mental well-being, which they otherwise would have gotten in a delighted and cozy homely space. Also, due to lack of enough funds, only a handful of them can make it to schooling outside orphanage premises, and that too on their capability.
3. Lack of individualized care
Lastly, with no close one around, they’re not accustomed to personal care and affection, which they otherwise might get when living with a family.
Though not everything children in orphanages experience are cruel or misleading for them.
1. Children learn to live their life in a more structured way as their lives are more regimented than casual.
2. Also, they learn to be self-dependent rather than being dependent on others. That’s what makes their future life a bit manageable and worth-living if nothing else.
If you want to do your part to make life less miserable for the children in orphanages, then give this historical story a read about how humanity turned the tables around for orphans in the Balkans.
