New campaign tackling residential care and orphanages in Cambodia

We are excited to launch our campaign, Why Was I Separated From My Family? The campaign is intended to highlight the critical issue of residential care institutions and orphanages in Cambodia, particularly the devastating impact on children.

Our program, This Life New Horizon, is based on the fundamental belief that children and families thrive best when they stay together. Over the years, thousands of children have been separated from their families and sent to residential care institutions (RCIs), such as orphanages or shelters. While there are numerous reasons for this, the main ones are poverty and misinformation about the impact of residential care institutions on children, with many parents and guardians wrongly believing their children would be better off.

This Life and our partners have made great strides in closing RCIs and safely relocating children to families or community-based care. However, there is still so much work to be done, including tackling misinformation and the financial incentives that fuel unnecessary institutionalisation.

The video is just a snapshot of the many heartbreaking stories care leavers have shared with us and is an essential step in raising awareness and understanding of the importance of main

taining family connections and seeking alternatives to institutional care for children.

We encourage you to join us in our campaign and support our efforts to reduce the number of RCIs and children in RCIs, and increase the number of children in family-based care or community-based care as alternative solutions.

You can learn more about our campaign and program, This Life New Horizons at (www.thislife.ngo/tlnh).