Closing African orphanages may be less heartless than it seems
A case can be made against such institutions, particularly the bigger ones
ARLENE BROWN is worried about her children. “I have 52,” she says. The former nurse from Pennsylvania founded Urukundo Village, an orphanage, in the Rwandan hillside town of Muhanga in 2006. Half of the children live with her permanently. The rest are at boarding school or university. “I don’t want any of my children taken away,” says Ms Brown.
But they may be. More than half of Rwanda’s orphanages have closed since 2012, when the government decided they were doing more harm than good. There are 14 left, says Hope and Homes for Children (HHC), a British charity that is helping the government. A decade ago there were some 400.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Please sir, I want a home"
Middle East & Africa August 26th 2017
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