Choosing Adoption - Developmental Impacts of Orphanages Versus Foster Care (14/20)

An overview of developmental impacts of children adopted internationally from oprhanages and institutions. How and why this may differ from children adopted from foster care.

Orphanage is the general term I use to cover institutional care and includes social welfare institutions, group homes, or baby houses. No matter what the name, orphanages are lousy places to raise children. Every child deserves prompt consistent care, lots of verbal and physical stimulation, and love. In short, children need parents, not shift workers. The quality of care varies greatly by country, region, and even within the same orphanage, but evening the best of situations, communal living is not conducive to providing the degree of care infants and children need. This fact alone is why some families choose a country where children are in orphanages in order to provide a home to a child who really needs it.

While most children available for foreign adoption live in orphanages, foster care is available is some countries, most notably Korea and Guatemala. Other countries, such as China, are making some progress in placing children in foster homes rather than institutions. Unfortunately, foster care does not automatically guarantee quality care, but it increases the odds.

Dr. Dana Johnson, from the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic, says that the chance that a child adopted from an orphanage will be completely normal (whatever that means) when she first arrives home is essentially zero. Growth and development will both be delayed. For growth delays, the rule of thumb is that a child will lose one month of linear growth for every three months in an institution. In a study comparing Guatemalan children in foster care and orphanage care, the children who had resided in an orphanage before adoption were significantly smaller in height, weight, and head circumference (Miller at al, 2005). Similar growth delays were also found in Chinese and Russian orphans adopted from institutions (Miller and Hendrie, 2000, Albers et al., 1997).

Developmental delays are also common for children who lived I an orphanage before adoption. A large study of children adopted from China showed "gross motor delays in 55% of the children, fine motor delays in 40%, cognitive delays in 32%, language delays in 43%, social emotional delays in 28%, and delays in activities of daily living in 30% (Miller and Hendrie, 2000). Forty-four percent had delays in three or more of these areas. Interviews with international adoption doctors and researchers reveal that developmental delays were common for children who resided in orphanages in other countries as well (Albers et al., 1997).

Most parents accept that their child will arrive home with growth and developmental delays, but their burning question is will their child make up these delays with loving care. Research clearly indicates that love and nutrition do wonders for a child's physical and developmental growth. The gains made in this area post-adoption have been described as miraculous (Ryan and Groza 2004; Bledsoe and Johnston, 2004; Judge, 2004). Motor skills delays are often the first to improve, while language and social skills may lag behind, especially for children who spent more time in an institution. The younger the children, the great the chance that he will make up any growth and developmental delays, but whether your child will completely catch up is impossible to tell. One research, Dr. Victor Groza, categorized the children adopted from Romania several years post-adoption as follows: "the resilient rascal" (20 percent) showed little long -term effects of orphanage life; "the wounded wonders" (60 percent) were making good progress but had some delays; and "the challenged children" (20 percent) continued to struggle. These children came from extreme deprivation and arrived home significantly delayed, but other researchers have seen similar results in other countries. 

Dr. Dana Johnson said in an interview, "With love, 70-80 percent of the children adopted from orphanages will do quite well; unfortunately, it is impossible to pick out in advance with certainty the ones who won't."

Better orphanages have the following:

• Consistent care (low turnover among caregivers, caregiver assigned to care for the same children each day)
• Fewer children per caregiver
• Adequate nutrition and medical care

It is impossible to generalize about orphanage care for an entire country, but once you have selected an agency you can ask specific questions about the quality of care in the institutions they work with. You can talk with other parents who have adopted from the same region of the country, and it may be possible to find parents who adopted from the same orphanage. Your agency may be able to give you names, and yahoo.com has some groups formed around certain regions. And remember, institutionalization is not an automatic sentence to physical, cognitive, or emotional health problems; many children come home and thrive despite having spent their first years in an orphanage.

Orphanages Stunt Mental Growth, a Study Finds (13/20)

Psychologists have long believed that growing up in an institution like an orphanage stunts children’s mental development but have never had direct evidence to back it up.

Now they do, from an extraordinary years-long experiment in Romania that compared the effects of foster care with those of institutional child-rearing.

The study, being published on Friday in the journal Science, found that toddlers placed in foster families developed significantly higher I.Q.’s by age 4, on average, than peers who spent those years in an orphanage.

The difference was large — eight points — and the study found that the earlier children joined a foster family, the better they did. Children who moved from institutional care to families after age 2 made few gains on average, though the experience varied from child to child. Both groups, however, had significantly lower I.Q.’s than a comparison group of children raised by their biological families.

Some developmental psychologists had sharply criticized the study and its sponsor, theMacArthur Foundation, for researching a question whose answer seemed obvious. But previous attempts to compare institutional and foster care suffered from serious flaws, mainly because no one knew whether children who landed in orphanages were different in unknown ways from those in foster care. Experts said the new study should put to rest any doubts about the harmful effects of institutionalization — and might help speed up adoptions from countries that still allow them.

“Most of us take it as almost intuitive that being in a family is better for humans than being in an orphanage,” said Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research. “But other governments don’t like to be told how to handle policy issues based on intuition.

“What makes this study important,” he went on, “is that it gives objective data to say that if you’re going to allow international adoptions, then it’s a good idea to speed things up and get kids into families quickly.”

In recent years many countries, including Romania, have banned or sharply restricted American families from adopting local children. In other countries, adoption procedures can drag on for many months. In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, Americans adopted 20,679 children from abroad, more than half of them from China, Guatemala and Russia.

The authors of the new paper, led by Dr. Charles H. Zeanah Jr. of Tulane and Charles A. Nelson III of Harvard and Children’s Hospital in Boston, approached Romanian officials in the late 1990s about conducting the study. The country had been working to improve conditions at its orphanages, which became infamous in the early 1990s as Dickensian warehouses for abandoned children.

After gaining clearance from the government, the researchers began to track 136 children who had been abandoned at birth. They administered developmental tests to the children, and then randomly assigned them to continue at one of Bucharest’s six large orphanages, or join an adoptive family. The foster families were carefully screened and provided “very high-quality care,” Dr. Nelson said.

On I.Q. tests taken at 54 months, the foster children scored an average of 81, compared to 73 among the children who continued in an institution. The children who moved into foster care at the youngest ages tended to show the most improvement, the researchers found.

The comparison group of youngsters who grew up in their biological families had an average I.Q. of 109 at the same age, found the researchers, who announced their preliminary findings as soon in Romania as they were known.

“Institutions and environments vary enormously across the world and within countries,” Dr. Nelson said, “but I think these findings generalize to many situations, from kids in institutions to those in abusive households and even bad foster care arrangements.”

In setting up the study, the researchers directly addressed the ethical issue of assigning children to institutional care, which was suspected to be harmful. “If a government is to consider alternatives to institutional care for abandoned children, it must know how the alternative compares to the standard care it provides. In Romania, this meant comparing the standard of care to anew and alternative form of care,” they wrote.

Any number of factors common to institutions could work to delay or blunt intellectual development, experts say: the regimentation, the indifference to individual differences in children’s habits and needs; and most of all, the limited access to caregivers, who in some institutions can be responsible for more than 20 children at a time.

“The evidence seems to say,” said Dr. Pollak, of Wisconsin, “that for humans, we need a lot of responsive care giving, an adult who recognizes our distinct cry, knows when we’re hungry or in pain, and gives us the opportunity to crawl around and handle different things, safely, when we’re ready.”

This is the background of the children in our care (12/20)

1. Some are victims of the aftermath of war:

Rainbow Orphanage is located in an area of northern Cambodia which was a major area of conflict between Phnom Penh Government soldiers and troops of the Khmer Rouge. Most of the young men of that time (1979 - 98) were recruited on both sides of  the civil war. Many became victims of this war and now live in the villages as cripples and amputees. After the war they  returned to their villages, but lacking either wealth or education,  resorted to living in the forests, cutting wood or living off other resources.  - and many succumbed to malaria and other water- borne diseases or were killed by land mines left behind from the war. Many children were left fatherless. 

Also, until recently, the mortality rate among women in childbirth was very high - with no access to western medicine, and many children were left motherless.

Adults often drifted to towns seeking menial work as cleaners and laborers but often the little money they earned was squandered on drink or in the local brothels - many engaged in unprotected sex, developed HIV and either died  or didn’t return to their village at all,  leaving no support for their surviving family members.

2. The poverty of families and subsequent migration from the homeland

The Pol Pot period and the subsequent years of civil war saw a massive dislocation of the population and hence the disruption of normal village life. Many moved to other parts of the country or to neighboring countries to survive. A large number did not return.  Some women returned to their villages with children but no husbands - others simply left unwanted children with other village people and returned to the life they knew in the cities. Relatives or grandparents often had little interest (or money) to provide education for the children, some were ashamed of the status of the children - many were neglected, ignored or abandoned.

3. The strict traditional nature of Cambodian Society

Cambodia is a very traditional society - in its values and in its regard for the customs of marriage and the bringing up of children. According to custom, the parents approve and choose partners for their children - and most young people follow this custom. The parents then provide the marriage with support, with inheritance and even help to set the new couple up in business. By contrast, if the young people break this custom their parents provide no support and often disown the couple. They ‘lose face’ in their own community and are not willing to accept responsibility for grandchildren - who are then often abandoned.

4. Unemployment and bank debt

About 85% of people living in the country are farmers - with no education and not enough land for cropping- and there is very little alternative unemployment. Many get heavily into Bank debt (sometimes inflating their income prospects to borrow money and perhaps start a new business.)  But with little experience, they inevitably become bankrupt, the property they have defaults to the Bank- so with no inheritance at all to give to their children - they seek refuge in a neighboring country like Thailand. Once again, the children are either abandoned or left with ageing grandparents.

Rainbow Orphanage has been established in this area to deal with some of these problems to assist these children and their families. We try to supplement the minimum Government  services needed and provide care, food, shelter and education  for these very vulnerable children. We are pleased to say that already the first group of children has progressed to years 10 -12 and we hope that, given the opportunities to become nurses, health workers, teachers, they can become partners in contributing to, and rebuilding, the local communities.

Orphan’s stories (11/20)

Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia, and enjoyed a prosperous culture and civilization during the Angkorian Era. Geographically, it is situated along the Mekong River on wet land favourable for agriculture.

The majority of Cambodians are famers who are honest, hardworking and traditionally friendly and supportive of each other.

However, war and the Pol Pot genocidal regime have severely shattered the country. The national social infrastructures, culture, tradition and social morality which used to be good,have severely declined. Trauma, the loss of spouses, children and relatives, and in particular, the deprivation of their right, dignity and honor have been in the heart of the Cambodian population for a full generation.

These are causes affecting the daily livelihood of Cambodians’ of all ages in this generation, Physically and mentally disabled people, orphans without any support and poverty are the legacies which the social affairs sector has to deal with.

Many visitors to Rainbow ask how the children came to the orphanage - and the kind of life experiences which have brought them to this place of refuge.

The children are drawn from three districts: Puok, Angkor Chum and Angkor Thom - all in Siem Reap Province. Some are orphaned, some abandoned - some simply poor and vulnerable  who have no stable and caring family environment to support them, neither parents nor relatives - but who wish to live and study at the Orphanage and have an opportunity  to complete their schooling. These children have a chance to develop into contributing members of society as their confidence and self esteem are nurtured in a secure, caring  and stable  environment with committed staff.

Orphan Train History (10/20)

Between 1854 and 1929 an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children were placed out during, what is known today as, the Orphan Train Movement. The name is derived from the children's situations, though they were not all orphans, and the mode of transportation used to move them across forty-seven states and Canada.


When the orphan train movement began, it was estimated that 30,000 abandoned children were living on the streets of New York City.

Two charity institutions, The Children's Aid Society and The New York Foundling Hospital,determined to help these children.

The aid institutions developed a program that placed homeless children into homes throughout the country. The children were transported to their new homes on trains which were eventually labeled “orphan trains.”


This period of mass relocation of children in the United States is widely recognized as the beginning of documented foster care in America.

Ways to help our orphanage - donating to charity - India (9/20)

Making a Donation –

One off Donation – donate either by post or online internet banking to our orphanage.

Monthly donation - a quick and simple way to donate a regular amount. This method helps us plan ahead. Either by online banking or download the Direct debit form from our donate page.

Pay Pal or Credit Card - securely processes donations.

Fundraising – There are many ways to get involved in fundraising activity to help raise funds and awareness for Joy Home for Children. Giving up a little bit of your time to raise some money can be really rewarding. You'll feel a real sense of pride for helping to improve the lives of orphan children. We offer personal interaction with our fundraisers with events listed on our website.

Mycharitypage is a website which provides a unique combination of functionality for fundraisers and event organisers and let people make donations online to charity. Mycharitypage, uses social networking features such as videos, blogs and forum discussions, to let people build a network of friends to raise awareness of their fundraising event online.

Corporate Sponsorship – There is currently no corporate sponsorship funding the work we do. A corporate sponsorship deal would help fund advertising, marketing/exhibitions, administration costs as well as the costs involved in running our UK based operation. As 100% of the donations (after bank fees) are directly spent on the children, sponsorship deals would be an essential for the daily running of the charity.

Press Advert/Publication Space – Complementary advert in trade/national publications, just to fill a space. Full/Half and Quarter page adverts have been prepared and are ready to email to publishers. Also looking for opportunities for free editorials.

Promoters/Event Organisers – If you are planning a charity event or have an event whereby you would like to donate a percentage of profit to charity, get in touch with us - we would include your event on our website.

Schools – You could support our charity with events organised through your school such as sponsored walk, jumble sale or a summer fair. These are all great way to raise funds as well as the profile of the charity.

Leaflet Distribution – (UK only) A6 size charity leaflets are available - Require means of distribution. Anyone that has access to regular letter/parcel mail out whereby leaflet can be added or even leaflet placement opportunities would be ideal.

Viral Marketing Campaigns – Utilising social networking sites and email is essential to generate website traffic. Join our Facebook Group and then invite all your friends to join.
As no donations are spent on Marketing, alternative means of free marketing is essential. By spending a few hours promoting our charity online, you will generate interest and this may lead to fund raising opprotunities as well as donations.

Marathon – The Worlds Major Marathons - London_Marathon, Boston Marathon, Chicago Marathon, New York Marathon or Berlin Marathon.

Visiting Hyderabad – Our offices are in Secunderbad. We would welcome anything which would improve the well being of our children. Visiting the orphanage is only permitted strictly with prior booking.

Web Site Link/Banner – Publish a complementary website banner on your website would greatly help us raise the profile of Joy Home. Any size banner available.

Fund Raising Search Engine - With Easysearch, you can turn those searches into funds for our orphanage. So how does it work? By switching from Google to Easysearch, supporters can raise half a penny for Joy Home with every search you make. An average easysearcher raises around £25 each year - multiply that by your number of supporters and the potential for donations is enormous! All you need to do is click on this banner and and make it your home page or add it as favorites as your search engine.

Shop Online (UK) - You can now raise funds for Joy Home For Children every time you shop online. Choose from over 2000 of the UK's best-known retailers including many popular names such as M&S, Argos, Debenhams, John Lewis and HMV, and up to 15% from every purchase you make will be donated to Joy Home at no cost to you!

Others – If there is any other way you can help us, we'd love to hear about it, so get in touch.

Over 50 Ways to Help an Orphan (8/20)

1. Make a general donation to Families Saving Orphans by credit card to sponsor a specific project or child.
2. Donate through the mail by check.
3. Donate stock. Email us to discuss it.
4. Sponsor a child.
5. Set aside an amount each month and donate with your debit or credit card.
6. Participate in "7 Days of Nothing" and donate the money you save.
7. Become a "Saving Sponsor" by donating $1,000 to the Families Saving Orphans project and have your adoption or orphan story featured on our website. Click here for more details.
8. Sacrifice one or more things in your life and donate what you save to help an orphan. Even one dollar can make a difference in the life of an orphan. Examples of things you might sacrifice: cable T.V. subscription, soda addiction, cigarettes, Starbucks coffee, fast food meals, full price movies (go to the dollar theater instead) dessert, manicure/pedicure.
9. Ask for donations from others. Send a letter to family members and friends and let them know you are trying to raise funds to help orphans. Ask them each for $10 or more if they can. Set a goal to get 10 donations.
10. Donate airline miles to Families for Orphans to help defray travel costs for our project managers as they travel to arrange medical care or help for orphans. Email us to set it up.
11. Go in person to local businesses and ask them to donate to Families for Orphans.
12. Arrange with Wal-Mart to set up a table where you can tell people about Families for Orphans and ask for donations.
13. Organize a pancake breakfast or a spaghetti dinner with the proceeds going to an orphan project. Ask businesses, friends and family to donate the supplies. Raffle or auction off donated items during the dinner, and encourage attendees to bring along items they can donate. Think about the people you know and what they could offer you. Do you have family who own a timeshare or condo or cabin? If so, auction off a weekend! Do you have a dentist in the family? Auction off a free exam and cleaning! Can you or a friend sew or quilt? Raffle off a custom quilt or blanket!
14. Sell unwanted household items on eBay and donate the proceeds.
15. Have a yard sale. Get friends and family members to donate items for you to sell, especially big items like serviceable furniture. Advertise well, listing specific high-demand items in your newspaper ad.
16. Use a credit card that gives you cash back on purchases and donate the cash back to help an orphan.
17. Organize a "Hoops for Orphans" event where children get sponsors to donate a specific amount for every basket they make at a special event you organize.
18. Organize a golf tournament with the proceeds going to help orphans.
19. Request that your birthday gifts be donated to help orphans.
20. During the holiday season request that those who traditionally give you gifts donate to help orphans instead.
21. Instead of sending a gift to someone, donate the amount of the gift you would have given to help an orphan and inform them of the donation being made in their name.
22. Organize a "Service Auction for Orphans" where family members and friends donate a service to be auctioned off with proceeds going to help orphans.
23. Share your orphan story. If you have had a positive experience with adoption or helping orphans, share your story with others by clicking here.
24. Conduct a Families for Orphans drive in your neighborhood by sending a personal letter to 10-20 friends and neighbors asking for a donation to help orphans.
25. Dollars for Orphans. For one month ask everyone you come in contact with for $1 to help an orphan. Explain that most orphans live on less than $1 each day.
26. Hold a birthday party for an orphan and invite your friends to come and each bring $10 to donate to help an orphan who has probably never had a birthday party.
27. Consider adopting a child.
28. Hold an "Orphan Awareness Night" in your home and show the Families for Orphans DVD and request donations.
29. Sign up for the free "Orphan Watch" newsletter and encourage others to do so too. Send out the link to the sign-up page to everyone in your email address book.
30. Send out an email to everyone in your email address book inviting them to come to familiessavingorphans.org to sponsor a child or an orphan project.
31. Consider contacting our partners at Legacyglobal.org to purchase a charitable annuity.
32. Put Families for Orphans as a recipient in your will.
33. Ask someone else to put Families for Orphans in their will.
34. Contact local businesses and invite them to match your donation.
35. Challenge family members to match your personal donation.
36. Hold a Families Saving Orphans barbecue and donate the proceeds.
37. Organize a "Walkathon for Orphans."
38. Do an "eBay Scavenger Hunt" and ask neighbors and friends to donate items from a list you create of items that could be easily sold on eBay. Then auction them off on eBay.
39. Encourage your school to conduct a "Dollars for Orphans" project where each child is invited to bring in $1 to help an orphan. We can match up a school with a specific orphanage or project.
40. Organize friends and family to do a "Car Wash for Orphans."
41. Ask your pastor if you can pass around a "Dollars for Orphans" collection plate to your congregation to gather donations.
42. Ask your church to sponsor an orphan or project.
43. Cancel your newspaper service and use those funds to sponsor an orphan.
44. Ask your dentist, doctor, orthodontist, chiropractor or anyone you regularly pay to receive services from to see if they will donate a portion of your payment to help an orphan.
45. Email your friends and families the link to "Compelling Orphan Stories" so they will be motivated to help orphans as well.
46. Take up a collection from co-workers ($10 each) to donate to Families for Orphans.
47. Put a link to familiessavingorphans.org on your business, family, or personal website and invite people to learn about the needs or orphans.
48. Start a blog and tell people about Families for Orphans and send them to our Web site.
49. Contact families that you know who have adopted or who are considering adoption and send them to familiessavingorphans.org, and invite them to share their stories with us or to become a "Saving Family" and have their story featured on our Web site.
50. Dedicate a percentage of the profits of your business each month to Families for Orphans and advertise your support of this project.
51. Send out a flier to your neighbors, friends, and family offering a paid service informing them that the proceeds will go to help orphans. Ideas for services you could offer: babysitting, housecleaning, baked goods or yard work.