J.K. Rowling urges fans not to give to orphanages
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has urged fans of her books not to give money to orphanages.
The writer and philanthropist, 51, took part in a Facebook Live chat for her Lumos charity with the aim of highlighting the plight of the estimated 8 million children around the world who live in the institutions.
In the chat, hosted by British DJ and presenter Lauren Laverne, Rowling said that although those giving to orphanages may mean well, they may actually be making the lives of children worse.
"All of the research agrees that there is little you can do worse for a child than put it in an institution," she explained. "We want to help children and that's an honourable and admirable thing. However, you may be contributing towards real harm."
Lumos's website states that around 90 percent of children in institutions have not lost both parents and are likely to have been separated from their families for reasons of poverty or discrimination.
The charity is campaigning to reunite children currently living in orphanages with their families or rehome them with new ones, as well as providing support to help keep children with their parents.
Issuing a rallying cry to her fans to help her charity rescue the children, she added, "Eight million children is an unfathomably large number - it's so hard to really take in what that means, eight million - but we can solve it. We absolutely do need funds but we need to change minds. If we change minds we will change lives."
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