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An orphanage is an institution dedicated to caring for Orphan s (children who have lost their parents). The term is sometimes also used to denote institutions where children reside without cohabiting parents, irrespective of the life status of the latter. Though various practices encouraged support of orphans -- Jewish law prescribed care for the widow and orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen -- the first orphanages, called ''orphanotrophia'', were founded in the first centuries AD. The care of orphans was particularly commended to bishops, and during the Middle Ages, to monasteries. In many times and places, orphanages have been founded to provide an alternative to Child Abandonment . Orphanages often attempt to find homes for children in their care; this often mean finding Adoptive Parents for the orphans. They may be privately or publicly funded. Historically, many orphanages practiced some form of "binding-out" where children, as soon as they were old enough, were given as Apprentices to households. This would ensure their support and their learning an occupation. In many works of Fiction (notable '' Oliver Twist '' and '' Annie '') the administrators of orphanages are depicted as cruel monsters. The largest existing orphanage in the United States is the Bethesda Orphanage , founded in 1740 by George Whitefield . Another famous American orphanage is Girls And Boys Town , located outside Omaha, Nebraska . The term "orphanage" has been largely replaced by "group home" in modern times. Historically, certain birth parents were often pressured or forced to give up their children to orphanages: those Born Out Of Wedlock ; those born into poor families; those born with disabilities, or whose parents have disabilities; and girls born into Patriarchial societies. Such practices are assumed to be quite rare in the Western World nowadays thanks to improved Social Security and changed social attitudes, however these often remain to be the case in many other countries. Since the 1950s , after a series of scandals involving orphanages coercing birth parents and abusing orphans (particularly but not limited to Georgia Tann 's Tennessee Children's Home Society , there has been a general trend, at least in the United States, of deinstitutionalization - that is, closing down orphanages in favour of placing orphans in Foster Care . Moreover, as it is no longer common for birth parents in Western countries to give up their children nowadays, the need to operate large orphanages have decreased. However, these factors have also resulted in a dramatic reduction of local orphans available for adoption throughout the Western World, and many would-be adoptive parents have to travel to orphanages in the Third World to find their adoptees. Nonetheless, in the United States during the 1990s , many political Conservative s advocated placing indigent, Illegitimate children in Orphanages . The idea was not implemented; however, comprehensive federal Welfare Reform legislation in 1996 was conceived as an alternative means of striking at the perceived social ills caused by rising illegitmacy rates. Many orphanages are run by religious organizations. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS Catholic Encyclopedia on Orphans and Orphanages History/Outline of Jewish Orphanages in the United States |