Giving children childhoods
There are currently one million children living in large residential institutions across Europe.
Most are not orphans. Most are locked up because of a lack of community based services, coupled with discrimination against specific groups. Most children in institutions are either disabled, from an ethnic minority or from poor families.
Conditions in these institutions are often terrible. They can be dark, dank and with little natural light or heat. More importantly, staffing levels are poor and as a result children are often neglected. Left on their own, they become withdrawn, isolated and dehumanised. Lacking the stimulation of other human beings, they often begin to stimulate themselves, by rocking back and forth, repetitive hand-flapping and, too often, this develops into forms of self-harming. There are few therapeutic activities. Play is an alien word. These should not be places that children call home.
Published research demonstrates that long-term institutionalisation damages children’s health and development1. It reduces their life chances. It denies them a childhood.
So we raise awareness of these issues at a local, national and European level. We talk with governments. We work with local authorities. We partner with grassroots organisations. Most importantly, we listen to children and their families. We believe that by working together, at every level, we can end institutionalisation of children for good, ensuring that every child can have a happy and confident childhood.
1 Bowlby, Rutter, Perry
