In 1993, Georgette Mulheir witnessed something grim and shocking at an orphanage she was visiting. She has a passion for protecting and ensuring that children and women get appropriate care and are legally protected. To see that these children were living in filth, with unmet needs giving way to blank stares and private suffering, having ceased trying to get the help of their child caretaker. The situation at the orphanage had a child to staff ratio of upwards of ten to one. They were overwhelmed. Frequently, the only recourse they had available was strict scheduling and administration. The understaffed institutions often led to conditions in which the children tried to make up for lack of environmental and social stimulation. As a result, unhealthy coping mechanisms began to emerge. With at least sixty years of research to prove this situation as distressingly normalized, children taken from their parents, many of whom are still living, harm their health and development. The earlier this happens in a child’s life, the more harm to their own maturation. The reason for this harm becomes apparent when contrasted to the parent-child attachment relationship.
This loving relationship that forms over the decades is the model for the growing child’s future social developments in life. Awareness of the harm caused by this widespread institution is still needed. Over one million children still live in orphanages. Additionally, the main reasons for orphaning children include poverty, disability, and ethnicity. Young girls with pregnancies are also a strong predictor of this outcome. Coping within the orphanages is difficult, but those who make it out, if any, find handling the outside world even more difficult. Trafficking of young women is a frequent outcome, as are prostitution, suicides, and a criminal record. It is less costly to keep children with their families than to send them to an institution. Due to Georgette Mulheir’s efforts, a movement has gathered to shift countries’ resources toward family centric policy and services. Many countries are developing plans to shrink this problem further. Georgette Mulheir has authored four books on women’s and children’s rights.
