High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them. Parents, and sometimes grandparents, are legally responsible for supporting children, but in the absence of these or other relatives willing to care for the children, they become a ward of the state, and orphanages are one way of providing for their care and housing. However some orphanages, especially in developing countries will prey on vulnerable families at risk of breakdown and actively recruit children, orphanages in developing countries are rarely run by the state