Trafficked children? Yes, this is a real problem. Dr Kathryn E. van Doore is an international child rights lawyer and director at the Australian charity Forget Me Not. Her research has unveiled a horrible truth that more than 80% of children in orphanages have families and parents and are a victim of child trafficking.

You might wonder how on earth this can happen in this day and age. Unfortunately, children in developing countries often do not have the same access to education as those living in the developed world. Many of these children live in remote parts of Nepal, India and Uganda. Their families can be cut off from society without access to healthcare, the internet, and so many other necessities required to help children thrive.

As a result, parents send their children away with the promise of them having a good education and a better future. Many of the parents in these rural communities cannot read or write, they are presented with a contract by traffickers and sign their fingerprint without understanding the true cost of this agreement. 

Children as young as toddlers are sent to orphanages with the sole purpose of attracting the altruistic tourist dollar. Good-doing people think that they are helping the kids, when in reality, supporting orphanages does more harm than good. Orphanages are not a place for children; families are a place for children.