Orphanage
OrphanageOrphanage is the name to describe a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable to care for them. Parents, and sometimes grandparents, are legally responsible for supporting children, but in the absence of these or other relatives willing to care for the children, they become a ward of the state, and orphanages are a way of providing for their care and housing. Children are educated within or outside of the orphanage.
Orphanages provide an alternative to foster care or adoption by giving orphans a community-based setting in which they live and learn.[1] In the worst cases, orphanages can be dangerous and unregulated places where children are subject to abuse and neglect.[2]
An orphanage is sometimes called a group home, children's home, rehabilitation center or youth treatment center.
The first orphanages, called "orphanotrophia," were founded in the 1st century amid various alternative means of orphan support. Jewish law, for instance, prescribed care for the widow and the orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen. Plato (Laws, 927) says: "Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men should have a fear of the loneliness of orphans and of the souls of their departed parents. A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan's property as of his own or even more careful still."[3] The care of orphans was referred to bishops and, during the Middle Ages, to monasteries. Many orphanages practiced some form of "binding-out" in which children, as soon as they were old enough, were given as apprentices to households. This would ensure their support and their learning an occupation.
Such practices are assumed to be quite rare in the modern Western world, thanks to improved social security and
Orphanages provide an alternative to foster care or adoption by giving orphans a community-based setting in which they live and learn.[1] In the worst cases, orphanages can be dangerous and unregulated places where children are subject to abuse and neglect.[2]
An orphanage is sometimes called a group home, children's home, rehabilitation center or youth treatment center.
The first orphanages, called "orphanotrophia," were founded in the 1st century amid various alternative means of orphan support. Jewish law, for instance, prescribed care for the widow and the orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen. Plato (Laws, 927) says: "Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men should have a fear of the loneliness of orphans and of the souls of their departed parents. A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan's property as of his own or even more careful still."[3] The care of orphans was referred to bishops and, during the Middle Ages, to monasteries. Many orphanages practiced some form of "binding-out" in which children, as soon as they were old enough, were given as apprentices to households. This would ensure their support and their learning an occupation.
Such practices are assumed to be quite rare in the modern Western world, thanks to improved social security and