A charity is urging Christians to stop donating money to orphanages and instead send money to initiatives which support family-based care.

A report for the Hope and Homes charity says that 'well-meaning' Christians in the UK are donating hundreds of millions of pounds every year to overseas orphanages that are helping to support facilities that can leave children suffering from emotional damage and institutionalisation. It's calling on Christians to engage with the orphanages and encourage them to move the children in their care to family-based settings.

The charity surveyed 4,552 people and found that 722 identified as practising Christians. It says 38 per cent of these had donated money to a residential institution for children overseas in the preceding 12 months.

“However,” the report warns, “as the body of research surrounding the benefits of family care for children over ­institutional care has evolved and grown, education within the UK Church itself has lagged behind.

“While often well meaning, the significant flow of financial giving and ­volunteering can perpetuate a reality for children that does not hold their ­interests at the centre.”

The report found that 16 per cent of Christians who had donated had sent more than £500 and that if this was scaled up to the number of regular churchgoers in the UK, this would equate to around £500 million being sent to overseas orphanages every year by the UK Church.

Pete Garratt, the director of global programmes at Hope and Homes, said: “I think that orphanages globally are a 21st century scandal. It doesn’t need to be something that is happening in this day and age.

“I would just love to see UK Christians and Christian leaders standing up and calling for change and saying ‘enough’s enough, we now know better’.

"“My call to the Christian church is: let’s be leaders in consigning orphanages to the history books.”