Are there any orphanages in Doha?

Answer 1

Orphanage or home for parentless, uncared for and destitute children instantly conjures images in our minds of a rundown place with substandard living conditions. Often, orphanages are also centres of exploitation and abuse of their innocent inmates. But Qatar is an exception.

Since the care of orphans is strictly supervised by the state and while private charitable bodies might provide assistance in kind or cash, they do not keep orphans under their direct care.

The department that looks after the lot of orphans and provides them shelter is known as 'Dhreima' in Qatar. It is the name of a beautiful blue-violet flower that blossoms in the harsh desert climate and is native to the country.

Dhreima, which operates under the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, boasts luxurious facilities to house orphans and provides them the best food, care and education, laying due emphasis on bringing them up in a healthy environment so that when these children grow up they do not show even slight signs of social or economic deprivation.

The ministry has a substantial budget for the care of orphans every year and immense stress is laid on making them part of the social mainstream. That's why one hardly hears of any deviance among orphans in the country whereas in most countries - whether they are highly developed or developing - hardened criminals often have had a troubled childhood and lived in an orphanage.

That said, however, Qatar needs to do more when it comes to making facts and figures regarding orphans public so that the media and social welfare organisations can highlight the problems of abandoned children and family violence with a view to raising public awareness about the social malaise.

There have been incidents in the past when newborns have been left abandoned in public places so they could be easily sighted and put under care.

As far as we know, no studies have been conducted on the problem of abandoned children in the country. If they have been, their findings are not made known, so the extent of the problem remains unfathomed.

This leads to public suspicions about unhealthy practices prevailing, particularly in the large expatriate communities in the country.

As for the Qatari community, the proliferation of nuclear families due to the pressures of modern lifestyles and an increasingly consumerist culture are challenging social stability with basic institutions like marriage often taking a blow.

The rate of divorce in the community is high, so marital disputes and family violence are not unheard of. In the case of family violence, in extreme situations the authorities are forced to move affected children from vulnerable homes to the orphanage.

There is a Family Counselling Centre which tackles issues like marital disputes and family violence, yet the incidents keep occurring, underlining the need to prevent them rather than look for a cure after they have taken place.

Raising social awareness to address the problems of abandoned children (even if its extent is limited) and family violence is thus the need of the hour.

But unless studies are conducted and social researches go deep into the problem and their findings are made public, no such initiative can be taken.

In Qatar, only Qatari families are allowed to adopt orphaned children under Dhreima's strict supervision and under Islamic norms. Islam does not permit adoption in the sense the rest of the world understands and practices it. There are some restrictions in Islam on an adopted child acquiring the family name of his adoptive parents and on property inheritance rights. Nevertheless, families that adopt children in Qatar do provide them love, care and social status.

submitted Feb 23, 2011