<P> "There are now 17,000 children in public orphanages throughout the country and untold numbers at private institutions ." </P> <P> There are numerous NGOs focusing their efforts on assisting Cambodia's orphans: one group, World Orphans, constructed 47 orphanages housing over 1500 children in a three - year period . The total number of orphans is much higher, but unknown: "There are no accurate figures available on how many orphans there are in Cambodia ." One charity named "CHOICE Cambodia" is run by expats based in the capital city of Phnom Penh; it helps support extremely poor and homeless people and helps families stay together rather than have their children put into orphanages where they might get exploited . </P> <P> "Currently there are 50,000 children in Chinese orphanages, while the number of abandoned children shows no sign of slowing . Official figures show that fewer than 20,000 of China's orphans are now in any form of institutional care ." Chinese official records fail to account for most of the country's abandoned infants and children, only a small proportion of whom are in any form of acknowledged state care . The most recent figure provided seems implausibly low for a country with a total population of 1.2 billion . Even if it were accurate, however, the whereabouts of the great majority of China's orphans would still be a complete mystery, leaving crucial questions about the country's child welfare system unanswered and suggesting that the real scope of the catastrophe that has befallen China's unwanted children may be far larger than the evidence in this report documents . </P> <P> "It is stated that there are 20,000 orphaned children in Laos . There are only three orphanages in the whole country providing places for a total of 1,000 of these children ." No Title . By Anneli Dahlbom One of the largest orphanages in Laos is in the town of Phonsavan . It is an S.O.S. orphanage and there are over 120 orphans living in the facility . </P>

When did orphanages end in the united states