# How (Not) To Start an Orphanage

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/how-not-to-start-an-orphanage/
- Published: 2017-09-04T15:26:41+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Children’s activist Tara Winkler explains how good intentions can lead to bad 
results.**

She explains the lessons she learned about why setting up or expanding children’s
orphanages, sometimes at the instigation of institutional and charitable donors,
can result in harm for the children housed there, who grow up without access to 
their larger family and in an institution.

Tara Winkler, who established the Cambodian Children’s Trust to provide children
with emotional security and the opportunities they need to break the cycle of poverty.
How could it be wrong to save the children by starting an orphanage? Oh, in so many
ways . . .

She first arrived in Cambodia to join a tour group in 2005 and was taken to visit
a small orphanage in Battambang. The children were living in extreme poverty, and
Tara was determined to raise money to help them.

Two years later, after fundraising in Australia, Tara returned to Battambang only
to discover that the same children were in deep trouble. Her spontaneous response
was to find them a new, safe, home. With a team of committed locals and support 
from friends, she established the Cambodian Children’s Trust (CCT).

With an instant family of fourteen children and three dogs, Tara had to learn a 
lot, very fast. And, along the way, she realised that many of the actions she took
with good intentions were not at all what the children needed – or indeed, what 
any child needs. CCT now helps vulnerable children to escape poverty and be cared
for within their families.

In this compelling, poignant and funny memoir, Tara shares the many joys and the
terrible lows of her journey thus far with honesty and passion. Written with co-
writer, Lynda Delacey, _How (Not) to Start an Orphanage_ is a book that will keep
you thinking long after you turn the final page.