In this post, the author, Kristen Cheney, shares her encounter with a staff member of a residential care center for children with disabilities in the UK who was on his way to Kenya where he planned to visit an orphanage. She asked him if a tourist would be allowed to visit the residential center where he worked, to which he answered “no.” Even the plumber must undergo a background check and only enters the facility when the children are out.
“What accounts for such cognitive dissonance between the protection of children at home and abroad?” she asks. The article describes the so-called “orphan industrial complex” and the ways in which it harms children, families, and communities in the Global South. “‘Saving orphans’ has become an industry that irrevocably harms children and undermines the development of child welfare systems,” says Cheney. “We must replace the drive to rescue with the desire to protect.”