In this blog post for Hope and Homes for Children, Stephen Ucembe writes about the damaging impacts of orphanages in the African context. In the post, Ucembe describes the recent cases of sexual violence committed against children in orphanages in Kenya that have been making headlines, many by foreign tourists and volunteers coming to visit the orphanages. "These cases show how orphanages offer sexual predators an easy avenue to perpetrate violence against children in the name of charity and how volunteers and visitors may subject children who are already vulnerable to further risks," says Ucembe. According to the World Report on Violence Against Children published by the UN in 2006, says the blog post, "violence in residential institutions is six times higher than violence in foster care, and that children in group care are almost four times more likely to experience sexual abuse than children in family based care." Ucembe calls for the strengthening of families and family-based care options for children and the end to institutional care.
