Harry Potter and Children's Orphanages

There's a new Harry Potter book. Yesterday, in celebration of Harry's birthday, it was announced that The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with commentary by Aldus Dumbledore, will be sold to the general public, with proceeds benefiting J. K. Rowling's charity, Children's High Level Group.

This is a noteworthy event, not because of the publication of the book, but because it sheds light on the problem of institutionalized children in areas of Eastern Europe, particularly Romania, Moldova, the Czech Republic, Armenia, and Georgia. In those countries, child development services are lacking, and as those countries struggle economically, startling numbers of parents are finding it impossible to care for their children, particularly those with special needs.

The Children's High Level Group reports that 250,000 children, often from ethnic minorities, are abandoned every year by their parents across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Only 4 percent are actually "orphaned" in technical sense. Most are the victims of ethnic prejudice, economic hardship, or some significant disability that makes them impossible to care for, but they are victimized again once they enter the system.

"Many of these children have disabilities and handicaps, but often remain without any health or educational interventions," Children's High Level Group reports. "In some cases they do not receive basic services such as adequate food. Almost always they are without human or emotional contact and stimulation." They continue:

A recent study found that adults who had grown up in institutions were:

• 10 times more likely than the general population to be trafficked abroad for
  the purposes of sexual exploitation;
• 30 times more likely to become an alcoholic;
• 45 times more likely to be unemployed or in insecure employment;
• more than 100 times more likely to have a criminal record; and
• 500 times more likely to kill themselves

In many ways, the challenges that Rowling's charity are trying to address are the same types of concerns that the United States dealt with during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the problems of massive urbanization and industrialization left many children endangered. At first, civic institutions, particularly churches, were essential in providing the social safety net for children. In time, governmental agencies and non-profits began to take over those responsibilities.

Of course, the American system is far from perfect. But at least at the beginning, it had a moral and ethical framework that recognized the dignity of children and the importance of caring for their needs. The problem that Rowling's organization is attempting to address seems much more complex. Not only is it attempting to reform a system of child care that is horrific in its deprivations, but it is also trying to establish a basic sense of social obligation and acknowledgement of the needs of children in societies that have lost their moorings.