Lumos (charity)

Lumos is an international non-governmental charity organisation (NGO) founded by the Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling, who is its President. Lumos is registered in England and Wales as charity number 1112575.^[1]

Lumos is dedicated to helping to transform the lives of up to eight million disadvantaged children who live in institutions and so-called orphanages around the world.^[2] Lumos uses the phrase ‘so-called’ because the vast majority of children are not orphans but are in institutions because their parents face extreme poverty; because the children have physical and intellectual disabilities, and their parents cannot afford treatment; or because they are from socially excluded groups. When parents are not supported in the community, these factors often lead to the break-up of families.^[3]

More than 60 years of research has shown that, despite the best intentions of many people who support and work in them, institutions harm the health and development of children.^[4] Separating children from their parents and placing them in large residential institutions deprives them of the love, care and close consistent caregiver engagement they need to grow, prosper and to reach their full potential – physically, intellectually and emotionally. Research suggests children with intellectual disabilities can be particularly at risk of failing to thrive – to the extent of malnutrition and death – through a lack of sustained, specialist care and engagement. Life outcomes for institutionalised children are often poor.^[5] One study found that young adults raised in institutions are 10 times more likely to be involved in prostitution than their peers, 40 times more likely to have a criminal record and 500 times more likely to take their own lives.^[6]

Lumos began its work by focusing on countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where there has been a culture – a legacy of the former Soviet communist system – of placing vulnerable children in institutions, rather than supporting families to stay together with quality health, education and social services in the community.

Lumos, and others, have worked to encourage the European Commission to establish regulations that state that funding to EU Member States must, from 2014, be used for community services, not to build or renovate residential institutions. Even before the regulations were passed, as a result of years of advocacy and awareness-raising, this principle of funding supporting ‘deinstitutionalisation’ (DI) had already helped divert at least €367 million of EU funding away from institutions towards community services.^[7]

Lumos now works on a global scale – particularly promoting family-based care alternatives and helping authorities to reform their systems and close down institutions and orphanages. It is a key member of the Global Alliance for Children – an international grouping of governmental agencies, private foundations and NGOs – which is dedicated to improving the lives of children in adversity and to ensuring that all children reach their full potential.

Lumos collaborates with governments, at all levels, professionals and carers and other NGOs, faith-based groups, as well as communities, families and children, to help transform outdated systems that arbitrarily separate children from their families. It shares expertise and experience and organises training in the skills needed to run family-focused, community-based care systems. In particular, it emphasises the importance of demonstration projects in areas or regions to prove that deinstitutionalisation – a complex set of challenges – can be achieved in practice.

Lumos has teams in countries including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. As part of its global focus on children in orphanages, it has also opened a US office and is currently scoping work in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Neil Blair is the Chair of the Board of Trustees, who include: Kazem Behbehani (to December 2014), Lucy Smith, Rachel Wilson, Sandy Loder, Rita Dattani, Nick Crichton, Danny Cohen and Mark Smith.^[8]

Background

In 2004, after seeing an article in the Sunday Times about children being kept in caged beds in institutions, J.K. Rowling felt compelled to address what she saw as a terrible problem. As a result, she founded the charity that became Lumos. She said: "I looked at that photograph of the boy in his cage bed and felt he has absolutely no voice. This touched me as nothing else has because I can think of nobody more powerless than a child, perhaps with a mental or a physical disability, locked away from their family. It was a very shocking realisation to me and that's where the whole thing started".

As a result, she co-founded the Children’s High Level Group with Emma Nicholson to address the problem on institutionalised and disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe. In January 2010, Emma Nicholson resigned as Co-Chair of the board of the English charity. She continues as Chair of the Romanian charity (the Asociatia Children’s High Level Group), in which capacity she is furthering the work she began there and directing its resources to existing and new projects. In 2010, Lumos was launched. The name Lumos comes from a light-giving spell in the Harry Potter books. In 2007, J.K. Rowling auctioned a copy of one of the seven special editions of her book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which raised £1.95 million for Lumos. In December 2008, the book was widely published in aid of the charity and became the fastest-selling book of that year.

References

External links

• wearelumos.org Official website for Lumos.
• @lumos Official Twitter page
• Lumos.At.Work Official Facebook page