orphanage

16 Stories

Strangers Chat on Bus, Realize They Were in Same Orphanage

Liberty University students were adopted from orphanage in China a week apart

(Newser) - Two Liberty University students started chatting on a campus bus and realized they had met each other before—15 years previously and 7,000 miles away, in an orphanage in China. Sophomore Ally Cole says that when she started talking to Ruby Wierzbicki, they discussed their majors and home states...

15 Dead at Center Where Kids Were 'Living Like Animals'

Deadly fire took place at Haitian children's center run by controversial Pennsylvania-based group

(Newser) - A blaze that tore through a Haitian children's home on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince killed 15 children, putting the Pennsylvania-based Christian nonprofit that runs it once more under the microscope. Rose-Marie Louis, a worker at the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding, tells the AP the fire started...

She Ran a 'Love Village' for Kids. Now, 20 Years in Prison

Li Yanxia, who adopted 118 children, was less loving mother, more fraudster, Chinese court found

(Newser) - A wealthy businesswoman who became known as the "Love Mother" in China for adopting more than 100 children has a new label now: convicted fraudster. The BBC reports that 54-year-old Li Yanxia (aka Li Lijuan) was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hebei province after being found guilty...

After Human Remains Found in Septic System, a Huge Effort

Ireland decides to do full forensic excavation at Tuam mother and baby home

(Newser) - In 2016, test excavations at the site of a former Catholic orphanage confirmed "significant quantities of human remains" were present in the old septic system of the Catholic-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland. The probe for such remains followed a bombshell 2014 report by a...

In 4-Year Quest, Writer Unearths Horrors of US Orphanage
She Went to the
Orphanage at 2.
Horrible Things
Followed
in case you missed it
Sep 1, 2018 12:11 PM CDT

She Went to the Orphanage at 2. Horrible Things Followed

BuzzFeed News has the piece on the St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont

(Newser) - In countries ranging from Canada to Ireland to Australia, the 20th-century abuses that took place in orphanages, oftentimes Catholic ones, have been exposed. But "no such reckoning has taken place" in America, writes Christine Kenneally for BuzzFeed News . "Even today the stories of the orphanages are rarely...

Orphanage Owner Denies Claim Dead Girl Had Eating Trouble

Police say Wesley Mathews claimed his daughter Sherin was malnourished

(Newser) - The Texas father charged in the death of his 3-year-old adopted daughter has been placed on suicide watch in a Dallas County jail, the Houston Chronicle reports. Police say 37-year-old Wesley Mathews originally told them his daughter Sherin disappeared at 3am Oct. 7 after he put her outside for refusing...

Quake Victim Gets Final Wish: a Haitian Orphanage

Britney Gengel's parents honor her dream with home for kids in Grand-Goave

(Newser) - Haiti has an immense orphan problem— UNICEF says there were 430,000 orphans as of 2012—and Britney Gengel had desperately wanted to help. Just a few hours before she died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake , the 19-year-old, who was on a missionary trip to aid orphans there, texted her...

JK Rowling: Let's Do Away With Orphanages
JK Rowling: Let's Do Away With Orphanages
OPINION
Dec 18, 2014 12:02 PM CST

JK Rowling: Let's Do Away With Orphanages

Author says millions of kids are suffering needlessly

(Newser) - JK Rowling makes the case today that millions of kids around the world are living in appalling conditions—the stuff of Grimms' fairytales—in institutions that are supposed to be caring for them. Rowling wants to change that, not by improving these orphanages with "pretty murals" or teddy bears,...

Russia May Suspend US Adoptions
Russia May Suspend
US Adoptions
Feb 13, 2012 1:45 AM CST

Russia May Suspend US Adoptions

Officials want more monitoring of children's welfare

(Newser) - Russian officials concerned about treatment of children adopted by Americans are considering suspending all adoptions by US citizens. The Foreign Ministry is weighing the suspension until a new accord with the US is signed allowing officials to better monitor the welfare of children taken to America, reports ABC News . Adoptions...

For US Adoptees Seeking Roots in China, Only Obstacles

Search for birth parents leaves many frustrated

(Newser) - For the US adoptive families who return to China in search of their children's birth parents, their travels often, and frustratingly, wind their way to dead ends. Adoptions in China remain defiantly closed and shrouded in mystery—the country prohibits the abandoning of children, so most babies are abandoned anonymously,...

Elton Aims to Adopt 'Heart-Stealing' Ukraine Orphan

Singer changes his mind about starting a family

(Newser) - Pop king Elton John has fallen in love with a 14-month-old orphan and wants to adopt the little Ukrainian boy, reports BBC.The music man's partner, David Furnish, has long wanted a family, but John, 62, feared his age and their rock-'n-roll lifestyle would be unfair to a child. But...

Malawi Court Blocks Madonna Adoption

Judge cites requirement that prospective parents live in Malawi for 18 months

(Newser) - A Malawi court has rejected a bid by Madonna to adopt another local child, reports the Times of London. The judge cited a requirement that prospective adoptive parents live in Malawi at least 18 months, according to AP. The rule was waived when the singer adopted son David Banda. This...

Iraq Takes Down Shoe Sculpture

Government rejects monument's 'political motives'

(Newser) - The large, shoe-shaped sculpture made to honor an Iraqi journalist’s gesture of defiance against former President Bush was removed from the garden of a Tikrit orphanage just a day after it was put up, CNN reports. The government requested the removal, and sent police to supervise. “We will...

UK Cops Helped Cover Up Sex Abuse at Orphanage

Briton who ran Albanian facility found guilty of sex with minors; two others on trial

(Newser) - UK police helped cover up sexual abuse at an orphanage in Albania run by a Briton, the Guardian reports after investigating the scandal. The shelter’s director, 57-year-old David Brown, was convicted yesterday and sentenced to 20 years in an Albanian jail. British police were tipped off in 2004, but...

Malawi Judge OKs Madonna Adoption

Addition of David, 2, marred by charges pop queen bent laws

(Newser) - Madonna has official custody of a Malawian boy after nearly 2 years of wrangling, a judge in the African nation ruled today. Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie have been taking care of 2-year-old David in London since meeting him in an orphanage in 2006, the AP reports. Critics railed at...

Fighting Scars Smallest Kenyans
Fighting Scars Smallest Kenyans
Feb 3, 2008 3:43 PM CST

Fighting Scars Smallest Kenyans

Kids witness parents' death in ethnic clashes

(Newser) - The violence in Kenya is separating droves of children from their parents—sometimes forever, the BBC reports. One Nairobi orphanage is currently hosting 60 displaced children; some wait for their parents to find them, but most know their mothers and fathers are already dead. "It's been a traumatizing experience...

16 Stories
Most Read on Newser