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"Child representatives and care leavers from South East Asia have called for increased support for continuing education, psychosocial care, finding jobs and affordable housing in the wake of COVID-19," according to this news article from SOS Children's Villages. Their recommendations were discussed with Asian government and civil society representatives in an online forum entitled COVID-19 Response towards the Alternative Care of Children in South East Asia, held on 28 July 2020. The forum, organized by SOS Children's Villages in association with the South East Asian member…
"About 21 per cent of children or more than three million children in Thailand do not live with either of their parents due to internal migration, a significant phenomenon that may have a long-term impact on the children’s development and well-being," says this press release from UNICEF.
An article from Stahili on how orphanages are used as a marketing strategies to appeal to volunteers.
Friends International, a member of the Steering Group of the Better Volunteering Better Care Initiative, established the ChildSafe Movement in 2005 to advocate for better child protection policies and practices, particularly in relation to travel and tourism. According to the article, the ChildSafe Movement has now “revamped” its company certification, which recognizes tourism companies for their dedication to child protection and commitment to ChildSafe’s 7 Standards by granting them a “ChildSafe Certification.” EXO Travel in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar has become the…
In this article, the author recounts her experience of being invited into an orphanage while on a tour of Dala, Myanmar as though the orphanage were a tourist site. According to the article, the tour guide claimed the orphanage was a popular tourism spot and it is not the only orphanage in the country welcoming tourists. Orphanage tourism, says the author, is on the rise in Myanmar and in other countries in the region such as Cambodia and Thailand. Some tourists choose to volunteer at these orphanages but, cautions the author, they are often doing more harm than good by “inadvertently…
This article from the BBC follows up on two recent “baby scandals” that emerged in Thailand last year. A young woman in Thailand was paid by an Australian couple to be a surrogate and gave birth to twins. One of the twins was born with Down’s Syndrome and the Australian couple would not take him. The boy lives now with the woman who gave birth to him, who has received financial support from an Australian charity. The other scandal involves twelve infants, all fathered by the same Japanese man through various Thai surrogates, currently living in a state-run shelter. The man has been awarded…