Children are not tourist attractions

I used to think it would be so great to go and visit orphanages in poor countries. Go and love on the children; help feed them, play with them, hold them. What could be wrong with that? I mean, these children are stuck in institutions, without any family, or anyone to love them. Isn't it a good thing to go and spend time with them, to show them that someone cares? Well...the problem is...it becomes "orphan tourism," or "poverty tourism." Going and dropping off new clothes and supplies, loving on the kids for a few days, and snapping lots of pictures...how does that really help these children in the long run? A child forms an attachment to a well meaning, loving visitor...who then leaves after a day or two, never to be seen again. How does that child benefit by having yet another broken attachment? Orphan tourism may make the tourist feel good about themselves, but it does nothing for the children in the orphanages. I think it just maintains the status quo. I think the focus should be on helping families be able to keep their children with them. Or finding and helping families in the community take the children into their homes if their is no family able to. Institutionalization and international adoption should be the last resorts. Yes, there are children right now in institutions who need homes. I say, focus first on finding out the reasons why the child is in an orphanage. If it is due to poverty alone, what resources can be given to families to support them in keeping their children with them?
When PAPs spend tens of thousands of dollars to adopt internationally, they are supporting the well oiled money machine that is international adoption. They are supporting the status quo. And yes, the corruption that is inevitable when a lot of money is involved. Yes, I believe that every child should have a home, and a "forever family." Of course I do. And for some children, international adoption is truly the only option left. But for many, it is not. Do the biological parents really understand what adoption, as we understand it, is? Are they influenced by promises of financial gain? And has anyone thought about the losses the child will undergo? Loss of family, country, language, culture, etc.
Hmm...I started out talking about orphan tourism, and somehow went on a tangent about IA. So funny to think that not so long ago, I thought both of those things were great, and win-wins. So much I didn't understand that I do now.