The modern media has many flaws, some harmful others more so. We believe that the Child is the epitome of innocence, deserving the most protection and safety and that's why our hearts go out to the images of children in Africa and their struggles. We don't notice it but others manipulate this idea and have turned it into a full-blown guilt tripping business that does more harm than good, called - “ the Orphanage”.

The first image that comes to mind when someone says “African children” is a bright rainforest with tiny huts and naked children running around playing in the dirt, waking up hungry, never going to school and being generally inhibited. This is the outline of the belief of African children in many western countries and its not only because of ignorance. The media around us is constantly telling us about the horrible situation African children are in, advertising their poverty and misfortune in campaigns to raise money.

Search up “ Africa” or “African children” and the majority of news corporations will have stories of mysterious illnesses, children fighting for survival, unexpected Orphans and random conflicts. Exposure to these types of ideas plant seeds for stereotypes to grow. The majority of news media on African children is sadly linked to diseases, orphans and horrible living standards. Unfortunately, I too would have believed that there was nothing more to the children of Africa than sick and hungry orphans, until 7 years later when i actually moved to Africa, Angola.

Previously, i had never given much thought to the stereotypes surrounding Africa but subconsciously believed them to be facts. I too fell into the “poor Africans” mindset trap. I understand why these stereotypes exist and why we believe them but the real question is, is it important? How can our knowledge, or lack there of, harm those living in Africa?

Simple -  trying to help whilst being misinformed - often makes matters worse. Many people who have the “Poor African” mindset, feel urged to help, sometimes going and physically aiding those in need. Such service is looked upon very highly in communities and praised. However, several researchers have claimed that some volunteering work in orphanages in Africa can cause children to have problems with developing relationship, called attachment theory. Volunteering can even endanger children in other ways, as in many of the countries in Africa there are no regulations for foreign volunteers. The illegal orphanages exist only to lure in tourists and earn profit and their filter for volunteers is even less strict as those who visit the children  are not required have any training.

Well if volunteering is bad, we can still donate money to orphanages to help out, right? Even though there are some truthful campaigns that use donated money to help and improve the life of children, even then, they can end up harming communities.

When there is an influx in donations to a certain orphanage it can significantly improve the standard of living for the children living there. This leads to many impoverished parents being encouraged to give up their children thus making the initial problem worse and eventually the donations end and the revenue is not enough to support all the children and they are forced into dangerous situations that initially caught our attention as a cry of help. The cycle repeats.

The actual act of adopting orphans from countries in Africa can also prove to be harmful. According to the NPR, in countries like Uganda parents are often tricked and lied to, told that their children will leave for a time being to get better educations, instead their children are taken away from them and given up for permanent adoption to unknowing American families.

This doesn't mean we should stop trying to help and close all the orphanages in Africa. There are other solutions like donating money to charities that support communities which help children and their families by improving their standards of living. Many orphanages provide the only support for some children and shouldn’t be closed or shunned as they actually can help.

Some orphanages in Africa help children, some of them regulate their volunteers, and some of them are legal. There's a huge risk involved with trying to help children in Africa and often if an adequate amount of research is not done and judgment is clouded by stereotypes of the majority of children in Africa being orphans, the majority of people will donate to the wrong places. The most important thing is to acknowledge that not all children in Africa are helpless and that we must be more vigilant and careful when choosing services to donate our money to as they can do more harm than good.