Download the study here

Research Affirms What We’ve Known All Along: Family Changes Everything

When Asia’s Hope began more than twenty years ago, our vision was simple but radical: create families for kids who had lost theirs. We believed that orphaned and vulnerable children don’t just need food, clothing, or shelter — they need the belonging that only a family-like setting can provide.

Now, a new Johns Hopkins University capstone project offers compelling evidence that this approach isn’t just compassionate — it’s effective.

A Case Study in Familial Belonging

In her 2025 Master’s thesis, Replication of Asia’s Hope’s Family-Style Care Model for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children: Encouraging Familial Belonging, researcher Kathleen Cook examined what makes Asia’s Hope’s homes so uniquely successful. Drawing on interviews with our national directors in Cambodia, Thailand, and India, along with decades of international research on orphan care, she found that the defining feature of our model is something we’ve always known instinctively:

“The most important and impactful aspect of the family-style homes for OVC which Asia’s Hope operates is that the children experience familial belonging.”

Why Family-style Care Matters

Cook’s research found that children in Asia’s Hope’s care thrive not merely because their physical needs are met, but because they feel at home. She writes:

“Every interview highlighted familial belonging as necessary for the positive outcomes experienced by Asia’s Hope graduates.”

This sense of belonging shows up in daily life: family meals shared around a single table, older kids helping younger ones with homework, home parents praying and playing alongside their children. These rhythms, familiar to any healthy family, help heal deep wounds and foster the stability and confidence every child needs to flourish.

A Model Worth Replicating

The study doesn’t shy away from the complexity of global orphan care. Cook contrasts Asia’s Hope’s model with both traditional institutional orphanages and short-term foster placements, concluding that quality of care — not simply the setting — determines a child’s outcomes.

“The important factor in well-being is actually the quality of care within a setting rather than the setting of care.”

She goes on to note that Asia’s Hope’s model:

“combines an ideal family-based care scenario, where the family has the resources and time to care well for all the children’s needs, with the benefits of institutional care such as caring for more children and keeping sibling groups together.”

Her data show that Asia’s Hope graduates outperform their peers in educational attainment, with 84% completing high school and 72% earning university or vocational degrees — remarkable numbers for children who once faced lives of poverty, neglect, or exploitation.

Real local leadership

Cook also emphasizes one of our founding convictions: that sustainable, dignifying care must be locally led.

“Asia’s Hope commits to substantial if not complete Indigenous leadership on a day-to-day basis, with zero Westerners living and working for Asia’s Hope in Asia.”

Each home is run by local parents and supervised by national directors who understand their communities’ needs and cultures. This approach avoids dependency and ensures the homes are culturally appropriate, sustainable, and truly rooted in love.

Extending the Model’s Impact

Finally, Cook notes that Asia’s Hope’s next chapter may be to share what we’ve learned.

“This project acts as a first step toward a formal mentorship program and written guidance for other organizations.”

We’ve long believed that our work should outgrow our organization — that the lessons we’ve learned about family, permanence, and love can help others care better for kids around the world.

Family Is the Future

We’re humbled and encouraged that independent research now affirms what we’ve seen every day for two decades: kids don’t need to be rescued — they need to belong.

“A kid can move through a well-resourced institution and still not have their deepest need met: to not be an orphan anymore.” — John McCollum, quoted in the study

You can read the full paper here.