Children on Their Own in Cambodia: Mailman School Study Looks at Youth Living in Orphanages and on the Streets

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Confronted with the question of why so many Cambodian children live in orphanages, government officials point to a startling fact. Many of these children are not orphans, at least in the traditional sense. Their parents place them in residential care, often for better educational opportunities. Other Cambodian youth are living on the street or in informal dwellings, sometimes away from family. But an accurate estimate of how many young people are living in these vulnerable situations is unknown.

A new video describes a Mailman School-led study to assess the size of the problem. Interspersed with footage of children in informal settlements and orphanages, researchers and officials describe the growth of residential care facilities in Cambodia, many which are operated or funded by foreign charities, including religious groups. There is concern that some of these facilities may not be operating in the children’s best interests. Studies in Romania and elsewhere have documented cognitive, emotional, and physical development delays for youth in similar institutional settings.

Funded by USAID, the Cambodia study employed surveyors to travel throughout the country to tally the number of children living in residential care. A second arm of the study used a method called capture-recapture to assess the number of homeless youth. Two waves of interviews gathered basic identifying information from children age 13 and older. The portion of children counted twice provided the basis for estimating the total. 

The results of the research will be published in coming weeks. The researchers say they hope it is only the first in a series of similar efforts in other countries.