Lumos is the charity founded by J.K. Rowling in 2005 to help vulnerable children and end the institutionalisation of children.
The organisation was originally called the Children’s High Level Group. Rowling became its president after reading about children living in institutions and other harmful settings, and it later adopted the name Lumos, taken from a light-producing spell in the Harry Potter books.
Lumos works with governments and partners to replace large residential institutions with family-based and community-based care. Its programmes have focused on countries including Moldova, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine.
The charity’s name is sometimes confused with a fictional spell alone. In this context, Lumos refers to an international child-protection organisation whose work is inspired by the need to give children safer family environments.