This article describes the alarming trend of poor families placing their children in orphanages in Cambodia, in the hopes of providing them with better educational and other opportunities. As a result, a significant part of an entire generation is being institutionalised, placing them at risk for harmful long-term consequences. It also refers to recent research by the Mailman School of Public Health (Columbia University) that seeks to assess the size of the problem in Cambodia, by tallying the number of children in institutional care and exploring their circumstances.