A social orphan is a child with no adults looking after them, even though one or more parents are still alive. Usually the parents are alcoholics, drug abusers, or simply not interested in the child. It is therefore not the same as an
orphan
An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died.
In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...
, who has no living parents. The phenomenon is encountered all over the world.
The
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Co ...
has brought many countries to reassess their mandate to care for children inside their borders. It thus brought to light various new ways of thinking about international
child care
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...
.
Populations
In a study of
Honduras it was found that 54.3% of children commonly identified as "orphans" were actually social orphans.
[Tercer informe periódico sobre la situación en el cumplimiento de la Convención de los Derechos del Niño (Honduras Data)]
See also
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Child abandonment
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Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...
*
Street children
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Orphans in Russia
*
Euro-orphan
References
{{Social class
Family
Child welfare
Human development
Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement
Society of Ukraine
Child abandonment