Living in a crowd: young people’s counter-narratives of care in a Thai orphanage

ABSTRACT

Young people in orphanages are exposed to compounding structural inequalities tied to local, national, and global processes. Popular criticisms of orphanages highlight the potential harm of institutionalised living, including abuse and exploitation associated with the global rise of voluntourism and the intensified disadvantages young people face when transitioning out of institutionalised care. Yet, these concerns often lack cultural specificity and understanding of complex lived experiences from the Global South, instead reinforcing a simplistic image of young people in care as passive or damaged victims. This article examines the narratives of young people who grew up in an orphanage in Thailand. Now in their early 20s, nine young Thais participated in interviews and a focus group which they saw as self-advocacy regarding their experiences of care as the orphanage shifted from a small residential house of 40 children to a larger institution with 100 children. Participants reported a loss of intimate care as the orphanage grew, damaging their sense of self and precipitating their using strategies to obtain desired forms of care, with implications for their adult relationships. Such insights are important for informing alternative care policies that nurture the sort of care that matters to those with lived experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative care
• theories of care
• orphans
• narrative
• youth transitions

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the crucial, insightful, and generous contributions of the participants in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We use ‘alternative care’ as an overarching term to describe the permanent care of children who cannot live with parents or extended family. We use ‘residential care’ to describe a smaller setting with less than 40 children and ‘institutional care’ to describe a large dormitory style setting for larger numbers of children.

2 ‘Double orphans’ are those children who have lost both parents, often due to illness such as HIV/AIDS. There are an estimated 15.1 million double orphans worldwide (UNICEF 2017).

3 A pseudonym for an older girl at the orphanage (not a participant in this study).

4 ‘Danger money’ is given to employees who are asked to risk their lives in their work. For Niran (male, 24) it was climbing electrical poles to fix electrical wires.