The money trail: Australian support for orphanages( feedback)

Between 4.35% and 15.61% of public schools fundraised or took trips to orphanages, varying across state and territories.

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 Australian NGOs and charities are also big players. About 245 registered NGOs directly funded or sent volunteers to residential care institutions, and 565 Australian charities were involved with or operated residential care institutions overseas.

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Australian-based travel agencies market orphanage placements as “voluntourism”, a blend of holiday and volunteering sold to well-intentioned travellers.

Van Doore and her team found 22 Australian-based travel agencies or organisations that send volunteers to residential care centres. Another 61 overseas-based travel agencies were found to be recruiting Australian volunteers to work in residential care.

“I think people who are supporting orphanages, cambodia visa for singaporean  whether they’re funding or volunteering, generally have excellent intentions,” van Doore said. “Unfortunately it’s those very good intentions that are being manipulated in these instances.”

It’s not just foreign support that props up foreign orphanages. The phenomenon is driven by complex internal factors like poverty, economic migration, and disability.

But, in places like Cambodia, orphanages are now replacing more traditional forms of kinship care and community-based care as a means of caring for orphaned children. To sustain the business, children are “recruited” from poor families with promises of education and a better life. Some are trafficked.

Many orphanages deliberately market themselves as tourist destinations. Children are kept looking poor and malnourished and taught to sing or dance to maximise pity and western donations.

Often visiting adults are allowed to tour to cambodia from dubai take children on unaccompanied trips away from the orphanage.