Support Families, Not Orphanages.
August 10th, 2013 -- Washington, DC -- The Washington Post on Saturday published an Op-Ed written by Disability Rights International's (DRI) President Laurie Ahern calling for a paradigm shift in how the world acts to protect vulnerable children. Read the Op-Ed here.
Orphanages are no place for children
Published in The Washington Post
An estimated 8 million to 10 million infants and children live in orphanages around the world, and aid agencies, churches and governments provide hundreds of millions of dollars in the hope that they can help vulnerable children find sanctuary in these institutions. This hope is badly misplaced. Orphanages are not safe places for children.
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6 months old, and left to die.
Dear DRI Supporters,
Several weeks ago, I visited a baby house in Eastern Europe. It houses about 130 infants and small children, a third of whom are children with disabilities. Most babies are eventually returned to their birth parents, put into foster care or are adopted. But not the babies with disabilities. They have nowhere to go.