The tragedy of orphanages
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0:01 - 0:04Across Europe and Central Asia,
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0:04 - 0:06approximately one million children live in large
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0:06 - 0:11residential institutions, usually known as orphanages.
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0:11 - 0:14Most people imagine orphanages as a benign environment
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0:14 - 0:15that care for children.
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0:15 - 0:18Others know more about the living conditions there,
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0:18 - 0:21but still think they're a necessary evil.
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0:21 - 0:24After all, where else would we put all of those children
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0:24 - 0:26who don't have any parents?
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0:26 - 0:30But 60 years of research has demonstrated
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0:30 - 0:32that separating children from their families
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0:32 - 0:35and placing them in large institutions
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0:35 - 0:37seriously harms their health and development,
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0:37 - 0:41and this is particularly true for young babies.
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0:41 - 0:43As we know, babies are born
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0:43 - 0:46without their full muscle development,
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0:46 - 0:48and that includes the brain.
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0:48 - 0:50During the first three years of life, the brain grows
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0:50 - 0:53to its full size, with most of that growth taking place
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0:53 - 0:56in the first six months. The brain develops
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0:56 - 0:59in response to experience and to stimulation.
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0:59 - 1:03Every time a young baby learns something new --
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1:03 - 1:04to focus its eyes,
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1:04 - 1:07to mimic a movement or a facial expression,
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1:07 - 1:11to pick something up, to form a word or to sit up --
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1:11 - 1:15new synaptic connections are being built in the brain.
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1:15 - 1:19New parents are astonished by the rapidity of this learning.
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1:19 - 1:24They are quite rightly amazed and delighted by their children's cleverness.
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1:24 - 1:26They communicate their delight to their children,
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1:26 - 1:28who respond with smiles,
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1:28 - 1:33and a desire to achieve more and to learn more.
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1:33 - 1:36This forming of the powerful attachment between child and parent
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1:36 - 1:40provides the building blocks for physical, social,
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1:40 - 1:43language, cognitive and psychomotor development.
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1:43 - 1:47It is the model for all future relationships with friends,
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1:47 - 1:51with partners and with their own children.
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1:51 - 1:53It happens so naturally in most families
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1:53 - 1:56that we don't even notice it. Most of us are unaware
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1:56 - 1:59of its importance to human development and, by extension,
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1:59 - 2:02to the development of a healthy society.
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2:02 - 2:05And it's only when it goes wrong that we start to realize
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2:05 - 2:08the importance of families to children.
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2:08 - 2:12In August, 1993, I had my first opportunity to witness
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2:12 - 2:16on a massive scale the impact on children
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2:16 - 2:20of institutionalization and the absence of parenting.
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2:20 - 2:23Those of us who remember the newspaper reports
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2:23 - 2:26that came out of Romania after the 1989 revolution
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2:26 - 2:31will recall the horrors of the conditions in some of those institutions.
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2:31 - 2:33I was asked to help the director of a large institution to
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2:33 - 2:37help prevent the separation of children from their families.
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2:37 - 2:41Housing 550 babies, this was Ceausescu's show orphanage,
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2:41 - 2:44and so I'd been told the conditions were much better.
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2:44 - 2:47Having worked with lots of young children, I expected
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2:47 - 2:49the institution to be a riot of noise,
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2:49 - 2:51but it was as silent as a convent.
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2:51 - 2:55It was hard to believe there were any children there at all,
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2:55 - 2:57yet the director showed me into room after room,
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2:57 - 3:00each containing row upon row of cots,
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3:00 - 3:06in each of which lay a child staring into space.
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3:06 - 3:10In a room of 40 newborns, not one of them was crying.
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3:10 - 3:12Yet I could see soiled nappies, and I could see
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3:12 - 3:14that some of the children were distressed,
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3:14 - 3:18but the only noise was a low, continuous moan.
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3:18 - 3:20The head nurse told me proudly,
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3:20 - 3:23"You see, our children are very well-behaved."
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3:23 - 3:26Over the next few days, I began to realize
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3:26 - 3:28that this quietness was not exceptional.
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3:28 - 3:31The newly admitted babies would cry for the first few hours,
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3:31 - 3:33but their demands were not met, and so eventually
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3:33 - 3:36they learned not to bother. Within a few days,
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3:36 - 3:40they were listless, lethargic, and staring into space
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3:40 - 3:41like all the others.
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3:41 - 3:44Over the years, many people and news reports
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3:44 - 3:46have blamed the personnel in the institutions
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3:46 - 3:49for the harm caused to the children, but often, one member
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3:49 - 3:54of staff is caring for 10, 20, and even 40 children.
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3:54 - 3:58Hence they have no option but to implement a regimented program.
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3:58 - 4:02The children must be woken at 7 and fed at 7:30.
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4:02 - 4:04At 8, their nappies must be changed, so a staff member
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4:04 - 4:08may have only 30 minutes to feed 10 or 20 children.
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4:08 - 4:11If a child soils its nappy at 8:30, he will have to wait
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4:11 - 4:14several hours before it can be changed again.
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4:14 - 4:17The child's daily contact with another human being
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4:17 - 4:21is reduced to a few hurried minutes of feeding and changing,
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4:21 - 4:24and otherwise their only stimulation is the ceiling,
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4:24 - 4:29the walls or the bars of their cots.
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4:29 - 4:31Since my first visit to Ceausescu's institution,
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4:31 - 4:35I've seen hundreds of such places across 18 countries,
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4:35 - 4:37from the Czech Republic to Sudan.
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4:37 - 4:40Across all of these diverse lands and cultures,
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4:40 - 4:44the institutions, and the child's journey through them,
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4:44 - 4:46is depressingly similar.
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4:46 - 4:49Lack of stimulation often leads to self-stimulating behaviors
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4:49 - 4:52like hand-flapping, rocking back and forth,
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4:52 - 4:56or aggression, and in some institutions, psychiatric drugs
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4:56 - 4:59are used to control the behavior of these children,
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4:59 - 5:01whilst in others, children are tied up to prevent them
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5:01 - 5:04from harming themselves or others.
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5:04 - 5:06These children are quickly labeled as having disabilities
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5:06 - 5:10and transferred to another institution for children with disabilities.
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5:10 - 5:14Most of these children will never leave the institution again.
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5:14 - 5:17For those without disabilities, at age three,
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5:17 - 5:19they're transferred to another institution, and at age seven,
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5:19 - 5:23to yet another. Segregated according to age and gender,
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5:23 - 5:26they are arbitrarily separated from their siblings,
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5:26 - 5:30often without even a chance to say goodbye.
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5:30 - 5:33There's rarely enough to eat. They are often hungry.
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5:33 - 5:35The older children bully the little ones. They learn to
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5:35 - 5:39survive. They learn to defend themselves, or they go under.
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5:39 - 5:42When they leave the institution, they find it really difficult
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5:42 - 5:46to cope and to integrate into society.
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5:46 - 5:49In Moldova, young women raised in institutions
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5:49 - 5:53are 10 times more likely to be trafficked than their peers,
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5:53 - 5:57and a Russian study found that two years after leaving institutions,
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5:57 - 6:01young adults, 20 percent of them had a criminal record,
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6:01 - 6:0414 percent were involved in prostitution,
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6:04 - 6:09and 10 percent had taken their own lives.
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6:09 - 6:12But why are there so many orphans in Europe
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6:12 - 6:16when there hasn't been a great deal of war or disaster in recent years?
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6:16 - 6:20In fact, more than 95 percent of these children have living parents,
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6:20 - 6:22and societies tend to blame these parents
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6:22 - 6:25for abandoning these children, but research shows that
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6:25 - 6:28most parents want their children, and that the primary drivers
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6:28 - 6:30behind institutionalization
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6:30 - 6:34are poverty, disability and ethnicity.
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6:34 - 6:38Many countries have not developed inclusive schools,
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6:38 - 6:40and so even children with a very mild disability
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6:40 - 6:43are sent away to a residential special school,
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6:43 - 6:45at age six or seven.
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6:45 - 6:49The institution may be hundreds of miles away from the family home.
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6:49 - 6:52If the family's poor, they find it difficult to visit,
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6:52 - 6:56and gradually the relationship breaks down.
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6:56 - 6:59Behind each of the million children in institutions,
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6:59 - 7:03there is usually a story of parents who are desperate
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7:03 - 7:08and feel they've run out of options, like Natalia in Moldova,
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7:08 - 7:10who only had enough money to feed her baby,
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7:10 - 7:13and so had to send her older son to the institution;
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7:13 - 7:16or Desi, in Bulgaria, who looked after her four children
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7:16 - 7:19at home until her husband died,
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7:19 - 7:21but then she had to go out to work full time,
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7:21 - 7:23and with no support, felt she had no option
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7:23 - 7:27but to place a child with disabilities in an institution;
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7:27 - 7:30or the countless young girls too terrified to tell their parents
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7:30 - 7:34they're pregnant, who leave their babies in a hospital;
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7:34 - 7:37or the new parents, the young couple who have
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7:37 - 7:41just found out that their firstborn child has a disability,
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7:41 - 7:44and instead of being provided with positive messages
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7:44 - 7:47about their child's potential, are told by the doctors,
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7:47 - 7:50"Forget her, leave her in the institution,
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7:50 - 7:54go home and make a healthy one."
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7:54 - 7:57This state of affairs is neither necessary nor is it inevitable.
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7:57 - 8:00Every child has the right to a family, deserves
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8:00 - 8:04and needs a family, and children are amazingly resilient.
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8:04 - 8:07We find that if we get them out of institutions and into loving
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8:07 - 8:10families early on, they recover their developmental delays,
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8:10 - 8:13and go on to lead normal, happy lives.
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8:13 - 8:17It's also much cheaper to provide support to families
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8:17 - 8:20than it is to provide institutions.
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8:20 - 8:23One study suggests that a family support service
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8:23 - 8:26costs 10 percent of an institutional placement,
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8:26 - 8:28whilst good quality foster care
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8:28 - 8:31costs usually about 30 percent.
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8:31 - 8:34If we spend less on these children but on the right services,
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8:34 - 8:38we can take the savings and reinvest them in high quality
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8:38 - 8:43residential care for those few children with extremely complex needs.
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8:43 - 8:47Across Europe, a movement is growing to shift the focus
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8:47 - 8:50and transfer the resources from large institutions
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8:50 - 8:54that provide poor quality care to community-based services
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8:54 - 8:57that protect children from harm and allow them to develop
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8:57 - 9:00to their full potential. When I first started to work in Romania
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9:00 - 9:04nearly 20 years ago, there were 200,000 children living
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9:04 - 9:08in institutions, and more entering every day.
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9:08 - 9:10Now, there are less than 10,000, and
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9:10 - 9:14family support services are provided across the country.
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9:14 - 9:17In Moldova, despite extreme poverty and the terrible effects
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9:17 - 9:20of the global financial crisis, the numbers of children
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9:20 - 9:23in institutions has reduced by more than 50 percent
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9:23 - 9:26in the last five years, and the resources are being
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9:26 - 9:31redistributed to family support services and inclusive schools.
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9:31 - 9:34Many countries have developed national action plans for change.
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9:34 - 9:37The European Commission and other major donors
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9:37 - 9:40are finding ways to divert money from institutions
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9:40 - 9:43towards family support, empowering communities
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9:43 - 9:46to look after their own children.
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9:46 - 9:49But there is still much to be done to end the systematic
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9:49 - 9:51institutionalization of children.
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9:51 - 9:54Awareness-raising is required at every level of society.
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9:54 - 9:58People need to know the harm that institutions cause to children,
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9:58 - 10:01and the better alternatives that exist.
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10:01 - 10:04If we know people who are planning to support orphanages,
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10:04 - 10:08we should convince them to support family services instead.
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10:08 - 10:11Together, this is the one form of child abuse
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10:11 - 10:14that we could eradicate in our lifetime.
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10:14 - 10:16Thank you. (Applause)
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10:16 - 10:20(Applause)
- Title:
- The tragedy of orphanages
- Speaker:
- Georgette Mulheir
- Description:
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Orphanages are costly and can cause irreparable damage both mentally and physically for its charges -- so why are they still so ubiquitous? Georgette Mulheir gravely describes the tragedy of orphanages and urges us to end our reliance on them, by finding alternate ways of supporting children in need.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:21
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Darren Bridenbeck (Amara Staff) approved English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Darren Bridenbeck (Amara Staff) approved English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The tragedy of orphanages |