JK Rowling urges fans not to give money to orphanages

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has urged her fans not to give money to orphanages.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Picture: PA

The writer of the hit children’s series took part in a Facebook Live chat for her charity Lumos, chaired by broadcaster Lauren Laverne, to publicise the plight of the 8 million children around the world who are living in orphanages.

Rowling, who founded the non-profit organisation 10 years ago, said: “All of the research agrees that there’s little you can do worse for a child than put it in an institution.”

She said of people donating money to overseas orphanages: “We want to help children and that’s an honourable and admirable thing. However, you may be contributing towards real harm.”

The author added: “If you take nothing else away tonight, I’d like you to remember this is a solvable problem.

“Eight million children is an unfathomably large number – it’s so hard to really take in what that means, eight million – but we can solve it.”