Fred Baridi is Stahili’s Field Operations Manager in Kenya. In this piece, Fred explains why strengthening families is important in keeping children free of residential care institutions such as orphanages. An increasing number of children live in residential institutions in Kenya, also known as orphanages or children’s homes. Despite the fact that residential care institutions …
Halyna Virt, new Stahili Ambassador, shares her personal story on volunteering for the European Youth Parliament‘s 84th International Session in Trondheim and Røros, Norway. Halyna facilitated the work of the Human Rights Committee which addressed the issue of the institutionalisation of children for the first time in the European Youth Parliament. Until recently, the topic of …
Continuing our series by former volunteers in orphanages, Dillon Hooker looks back on her trip to Malawi as a school student, and asks: was I helping children, or helping myself? In 2012, I travelled to Malawi for three weeks to volunteer in my school’s annual summer project, which involved children and teachers assisting with …
Continue reading “Volunteering abroad: helping children or ourselves?”
Between 21st and 29th of April 2017, 300 young people from 34 countries gathered in Røros and Trondheim (Norway) to debate pressing global issues at the 84th International Session of the European Youth Parliament. This was the first time that the topic of children living in institutionalised care has been debated at this level. Stahili …
Continue reading “300 European youth decide to fight child institutionalisation”
On 5 May 2017, the Supreme Court of India issued significant directives to governments in India in the case of Re: Exploitation of Children in Orphanages in the State of Tamil Nadu v. Union of India & Ors. The decade-old case highlighted a number of all too familiar and disturbing trends — sexual abuse and …
Ever since John Bowlby published his seminal work on attachment theory in 1969, psychologists have been able to demonstrate the short-term and long-term harm that comes to children who are deprived of a stable long-term carer in their early years. The decades of research that followed have documented the primary importance of secure attachments to …
Continue reading “The harm of growing up in institutional care”
As countries around the world mark the United Nations Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, Stahili’s Youth Ambassador Rebecca Mazzu reflects on a growing and controversial tourism trend. Being Brazilian, I’m used to people sharing their excitement about their upcoming trip to Brazil to visit the Amazon or in the hopes of catching the Carnival festivities. …
Continue reading “Slum tourism? Why not go to a museum instead?”
Many organisations in Kenya operate institutions called “children’s homes” which they claim provide care in a “family-based setting”. The operators of “children’s homes” often make the case that the children in their care are somehow different from other children, and so can’t be placed in real families. They argue that the children come from a …
The number of international volunteers traveling to orphanages in developing countries has risen sharply in recent years, even though the number of real orphans has decreased globally. Concern is growing about the impact of “orphanage tourism” on children, families and communities. In this latest post in our series by former volunteers, Madara Žgute reflects on …
Continue reading “Orphanage voluntourism: when you take more than you leave behind”
A recent story in the Kenyan media has highlighted the dangers of child trafficking – and the methods used by traffickers to trick parents into giving up their children. The report concerns 21 minors of varying ages, from two different primary schools and one polytechnic school, in Nyeri County. The children’s parents were reportedly tricked …
Continue reading “The child traffickers who prey on families”