A while ago we wrote an article about the issue of childhood, when our western society began to see children as "children", and not as small adults.Here we touched on the subject of the Hospices, orphanages or orphanages , where they abandoned the children not to expose them to even worse destinations, such as begging or death.
But these places of possible salvation eventually became places of abuse almost unpunished towards abandoned children, certainly one of the most vulnerable sectors of any society.
Join us in this historic journey full of shocks and tragedies, but also of some hope.
A historical panorama
Orphanages, orphanages or hospices are houses, usually public, where abandoned children are given asylum.There is a difference between the first two (orphanages and orphanages) and the third ( the hospice) and lies in that in e The latter, in addition to accepting orphaned children, was formed at the expense of the state or public charity.And the former have traditionally been managed by religious institutions.
History points out that Emperor Trajan had already instituted a hospice, where they took the children to be instructed on behalf of the state; and Adriano founded another equal.
In addition, hospices often functioned as hospitals (hence the origin of the name) and not only for children but for people of all ages.
Already for the sixteenth century these begin to appear first houses, towards the north of Europe, erected as a solution to extreme poverty, food shortages, wars and the number of abandoned children in the streets.The first cities where orphanages appeared were Lubecca, Augsburg (or Augusta) and Espira, all in present-day Germany .
The number of orphaned and abandoned children was such that the princes and rulers were forced to intervene, being for the moment a viable solution.Although in previous centuries there were similar institutions for the same problems, which served as a public order resource co and social control.
Children exposed in the inclusive
This is what children were called surrendered or abandoned by their parents in orphanages or inclusive . exposito is the “exposed” baby, exposed to exposure and left at the doors of these places.These children used to be the product of extramarital relations, of which the family generally disregarded completely, or Orphans of a father and a mother in extreme poverty.Until the mid-50s, in Spain and other countries of America there were still "children exposed" or "inclusive" (that is, they were given that name).
To prevent infanticides these sites were created, so they admitted to all creatures born illegitimate or, as we mentioned, absolutely poor mothers.
To preserve the honor of mothers now To assure them of anonymity, they even had small lathes or revolving doors with an opening towards the street; inside, there was a person who received the little ones, and should always be close, in the immediate piece to the lathe, to go quickly to the sound of the bell, signaling that a child had been abandoned there.
No person who worked in the inclusive could ask questions of any kind about the abandoned children, and only allowed to accept the clothes or the money that the parents would like to include.If someone wanted to delve into the subject should talk to the director of the establishment, but these efforts were often unsuccessful.
Whoever received the child wrote down the time and took it to the site for baptisms.After being banished and dressed, he was placed in a crib and received an identification collar where the year and time of entry to the inclusive.
Orphans were taught trades and given basic instruction, and life was spent in a disciplinary system quite similar to the monacal or military or prison.
Orphanages, also space for evil
Although in the beginning these sites arose to prevent the killing of infants, and the great social work they did was undeniable, these establishments were almost never supervised.
Although we cannot generalize, inclusive, hospices or orphanages became places of abuse and humiliation by those who managed them, leaving the unfortunate children even more abandoned and with emotional marks hardly surmountable.
Such This is the recently aired case of an orphanage in Dublin, run by Catholic nuns, where one of the girls, now a mature woman, dared to speak and tell the horrors to which she and all others were subjected daily.
Or what happened in the orphanages of Quebec, in Canada, and the orphans of Duplessis, during the 30s of the last century, where lobotomies and electroshock sessions were practiced for healthy children, of which we talked to you in an article dedicated to this topic...
They were spaces without government or social control, where men and women, shrouded behind cassocks and habits , they did their own and mistreated in an unspeakable way the weakest, most vulnerable and delicate part of society, the children.
Of course not everyone was like that (remember Mother Teresa and her extraordinary work with the orphans).
And not only those run by nuns or nuns.There are currently home-homes where they receive children who have no family, and are for usually attached to governmental and secular agencies, where there have also been child abuse and outrages.
In all, the testimonies of such abuse are alarmingly high and constitute a deafening scream that forces us to rethink the functionality of These establishments, or in any case the need to monitor more closely those who are still in charge of "taking care" of the orphans.
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Images: IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation , Oreste Messina , WildRedHed , PINKE , Francois et fier de l'Etre , Fred Miller
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