Member

The popularity of orphanage volunteering has seen a rise in orphanages built in tourist hotspots to fulfil demand and capitalise on the financial potential. In Cambodia, for example, there was a 75% increase in the number of residential care institutions in a five-year period despite no correlating increase in the number of children losing both parents. In Uganda, the number of children in institutions increased from just over 1,000 in the late 1990s to 55,000 in 2018, despite a large decrease in the number of orphans. The presence of volunteers also places children at increased risk of sexual abuse. There have been numerous documented cases of perpetrators posing as well-intentioned orphanage volunteers to gain access to vulnerable children, taking advantage of often unregulated, unvetted, unsupervised access. We must bring more attention to this and put it in the Modern Slavery Act right now.