6. Indonesia
Orphan population: 4.8 million
Poverty, along with natural calamities, has left many children in Indonesia without parental care. Only in the tsunami in 2005, 150.000 children lost their parents. A couple of years ago BBC reported on widespread money misuse in Indonesian orphanages. Counting on money from the government and tourists many decided to open orphanages and turn them into a profitable business. Needless to say, profit driven orphanages operate without thinking about children’s best interests. One of BBC’s interviewees explained that in some cases orphanage’s managers are like the mafia. „You find orphanage directors driving large cars and sending their children to expensive universities in Europe or America, while the children live in squalor.“
