Orphanages damage children for life, says group founder

Residential institutions such as orphanages should be shut down as children kept in them could suffer serious irreparable emotional and psychological damage, the co-founder of a leading NGO says.

Gary Stephens, one of the four founders of Mother's Choice, told the South China Morning Post that every child should have a family - biological or adopted - and none should be left in an institution where children suffer and become so damaged that the experience could scar them for the rest of their lives.

"We need to take the children out of institutions and into foster families - ultimately to a permanent family," he said. "A child never should wait for a family, a family waits for a child."

According to Mother's Choice - which helps pregnant girls and uncared for babies in Hong Kong by providing care homes, adoption and foster care services - there are nearly 4,000 children living in residential care, with another 600 children on the waiting list because of family issues.

While about 90 per cent of these children were left in institutions with their parents saying they would "pick them up later", only 60 per cent of those parents actually returned.

But Stephens said a parent's decision to put the child "on hold" is actually depriving them of a real family, and the opportunity to bond at a young age.