This article examines the increasing phenomenon of orphanage trafficking in Nepal – a practice involving the coercive separation of children from their families and placement into unauthorized care facilities under false pretences, often for financial exploitation. It evaluates relevant constitutional provisions, national child protection and anti-trafficking legislation, and international obligations to assess Nepal’s compliance with its legal responsibilities.

Positioned as ethical travel, orphanage tourism commodifies vulnerable children, akin to slum and wildlife voluntourism. Rather than alleviating harm, it sustains institutionalisation and exploits children for profit. This article examines orphanage tourism through hospitality ethics, sustainable tourism and corporate social responsibility (CSR), revealing gaps in hospitality curricula that overlook the industry’s complicity.

This publication provides an overview of orphanage trafficking and examines how OSCE participating States can contribute towards global efforts to combat orphanage trafficking and orphanage voluntourism.

Parenting author Kayla Craig; Lauren Pinkston, Kindred Exchange; Kristin Langrehr, 111Project; and Stephanie Robinson, Faith to Action, share their own experiences of caring for orphans and adoption. Their reflections provide realistic ways to be involved in supporting orphaned and vulnerable children.

Although orphanage trafficking can be prosecuted under legal frameworks in some jurisdictions, including Cambodia, there have been limited prosecutions to date. One factor that likely contributes to a lack of prosecution is poor detection, yet the indicators of orphanage trafficking have not been considered by extant research. The current study was conducted as a first step towards providing evidence-based indicators of orphanage trafficking.

Around the world, millions of children are growing up in orphanages, or children's homes as they are called in many places. But research has shown that the vast majority of them, actually have families.

This article presents a conceptual model for identifying clientelist relationships in orphanages, allowing for the implications of clientelism for child institutionalisation, trafficking, and exploitation to be explored.

<< Back to ReThink Orphanages Home

This book review is written by Elizabeth Faulkner of author Kate Kathryn E.