"TheRescuers”: Cogs in the Wheel of Child Protection
Many organizations promote international adoption as a solution to the “orphan crisis,” often without noting its inefficiency (high amounts of resources to “rescue” few children) and its politics (how did children become “orphans” in the first place, and who is entitled to parent which children) or supporting local efforts to improve child protection.
According to Riley, the idea of raising money to help a particular well-meaning Western family adopt one particular African child is far more popular among evangelicals than providing funding to build a child protection system in an African country. As shown, their actions can actually put orphans and other vulnerable children at further risk. As with earlier development interventions, the current evangelical orphan movement is concentrated on the “orphan” demographic to the detriment of other children with even greater vulnerabilities. Though generous, evangelical “orphan addicts” tend to direct funding toward orphanages and international adoption, when in fact, according to child protection specialists, these interventions should have the least funding. Because of this, Kasule notes that a pattern of intergenerational orphanhood is emerging in Uganda: children raised in orphanages are now placing their own children in orphanages.Some concerned individuals are trying to challenge the underlying assumptions that are endangering the development of stronger child protection measures, but real change cannot come until donors, particularly those in the evangelical movement, understand the dynamics of orphan care on the ground. While some faithbased organizations are doing excellent work in child protection and family reunification, others are at the forefront of child institutionalization and thus disruption of the establishment of an effective child protection system. As Riley notes,
Almost 100% of orphanages in Uganda are funded by some kind of church or faith-based organization, faith-motivated and faith-driven - which tells you that people of faith care passionately about impoverished and vulnerable children...
[but] the truth is, if you have the tough conversation about the damage of supporting and building orphanages and international adoptions being a huge part of the solution - and that it shouldn't be - it actually puts them in a place where they are not the heroes. They are actually a cog in the wheel of a wider child protection system...rather than being the ones driving and pushing and being the heroes of the situation. And that's tough for people's egos; that's tough for people to hear.However, Riley and many others in child protection in Uganda keep pushing for change: “...we need to challenge this, because until this develops into something appropriate - and I'm pretty sure it can, but it needs to be led differently - then...whatever we do here is going to always be trumped by the money that comes from [the evangelical movement]... sadly, because we just don't have the strength in the systems here to be able to withstand a barrage of do-gooders who are doing the wrong thing.” Thus, more evangelicals need to question their motives and actions concerning “orphan rescue,” based on empirical evidence from people working in child protection.
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