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Criminals are profiting from the trafficking and abuse of children in orphanages around the world. Traffickers, attracted by the funding orphanages receive from donations and organizations offering ‘voluntourism’ placements, effectively turn children into commodities by ensuring there is a constant supply of children available to attract funding.
‘Voluntourism’ – the practice of combining voluntary work with tourism – has become a popular trend,1 creating a boom in vacation packages involving volunteer work. It’s clear that organizations offering orphanage placements can play a role in ending the cycle of abuse fueled by demand for volunteer placements, which traffickers are exploiting to profit from the mistreatment of vulnerable children.
Poor families are vulnerable to being duped into giving up their children to orphanages with false promises of better care and an education. Instead, these children are often exploited, abused, malnourished, forced to work and sometimes re-trafficked to other orphanages to repeat the cycle and bring in more funds.
