Institutional Care: A Temporary Response and a Last Resort

The purpose of this publication is to raise awareness about the importance of family and community-based solutions to the problems that orphans and vulnerable children face. We hope to move funders, governments, and other organizations away from reliance on orphanages, which are unable to address the scale of the orphan crisis in Africa and often fail to meet children’s developmental and long-term needs. Institutional care should be recognized as valuable only when it is a temporary response or a last resort for vulnerable children having no other means of support. However, donors can play a needed role in funding short-term and transitional residential care for children who do not have access to family care.

Institutions as Short-Term Way Stations for Vulnerable Children

Institutional care can offer a way station for especially vulnerable children, offering them a safe shelter and providing for other immediate needs while searches are made for reliable family care. Children who have nowhere else to go, are living on the streets, are victims of sexual or physical violence, or have been abandoned because they have disabilities or are ill with HIV/AIDS often need this type of transitional residential care. Once crisis intervention and treatment to support recovery have been provided, every effort should be made to keep these institutional placements short term. Used in this way, institutions can keep a child safe and cared for until a better alternative within a family home in the community is found.

Strenghtening Family and Community Ties

An increasing number of orphanages are redesigning their programs to offer family and community-based care. Some are transitioning from larger institutions into smaller group homes modeled on the family. Some are finding ways to bring institutionalized children back into the community by reunifying them with extended family members and encouraging local adoption and foster care.

It is important for existing institutions to bring the community into the lives of the children they serve. For example, community volunteers can work with the children to create deeper relationships and social ties. Children can be involved in important community events and can participate in local apprenticeships. When orphanages strengthen community ties in these ways, children are better prepared for life in their community and the potential for local families to open their homes is increased. Donors can support these types of changes in partnership with institutions.