In order to better understand the context for children inside Syria, War Child Holland implemented a Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA) through trained researchers in Syria. Through participatory information gathering tools, children were encouraged to openly identify, discuss and analyse the issues affecting them. Data was collected between August and October 2013 but the report states that the situation had remained largely the same as of January 2014. Protection was ranked as their first concern by 81% of children. Although education was ranked among the top five concerns by 95% of children, it was only ranked as the first priority by 12% of children. Threats of displacement or armed attack were most commonly identified by children as endangering their protection. Home was the location identified most often by them as relatively safe. Upon further discussion with children, it became clear that the notion of home was strongly linked with a child's family and the space where family members were. For displaced children hosted in collective shelters or crowded apartments, this meant that their notion of safety associated with home was confined to the room designated for their family to stay.

Children placed high priority and dependence on their family ties for support. They reported fear of losing a parent or family member as a main concern (family is listed among the main concerns by 40% of child participants).  Despite children's association of the home (and family) to safety, children also reported protection threats and instability within the home environment. In all communities assessed for this report, children cited rising stress levels among their parents and family members. Children attributed this change to insecurity, the rising price of food and other commodities, and unemployment, which is viewed as preventing parents from providing for their children. The report include a range of recommendations both by the children who participated and by War Child. 

This report (in Spanish) by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) analyzes children's right to live and be raised by their families, and establishes the resulting obligations for States when it comes to supporting and strengthening families' ability to raise and care for their children. The IACHR states that there is no traditional or limited concept of family, as that would interfere with people's right to a private life. Moreover, the Commission understands that different types of family ties exist in today's society. The report also analyzes the most common circumstances in which a protection measure may be issued involving the separation of a child from his or her family. Such circumstances include a family's lack of material resources; violence within the home; and relinquishment of custody or abandonment. The IACHR concludes that even though international human rights law has established that poverty and the lack of material means should not be a reason for children to be separated from their families, in practice, in the Americas, poverty continues to be the backdrop for many cases in which children enter a residential institution. The report also expresses concern over the fact that children from traditionally excluded sectors of society, such as Afro-descendant or indigenous children and children with disabilities, are overrepresented in residential institutions. 

In terms of standards, the IACHR establishes in the report that the principles of exceptionality, necessity, and temporariness should prevail when it comes to applying special protection measures that involve the separation of children from their families. It underlines that special protection measures should, first of all, contemplate the possibility that children can be taken in within their extended or expanded family, as this is the measure that is most respectful of their rights; if this is not possible or not in a child's best interests, the measures should consider the alternative of care in a foster family. The IACHR underlines that institutional/residential care should be limited to those cases in which it is necessary and suitable, based on the best interests of the child, ensuring that the child will not remain in an institutional/ residential care facility for longer than is strictly necessary. Moreover, the Commission calls for substituting large residential institutions with smaller care centers that can provide personalized, quality care with a dynamic similar to that of a family and in a context close to the community to which the child belongs. 

To access the full document, please visit: 

 http://www.bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=32343&themeID=1001&topicID=1007

The Global Survey on Violence against Children, conducted under the auspices of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, examines the measures in place around the world to ensure follow-up to the recommendations set out in the 2006 UN Study on Violence against Children. It draws on a wide range of sources, including the responses from 104 governments to the Global Survey questionnaire, and seven regional consultations held with children and young people between 2009 and 2012. The Survey reveals that there has been some progress on these issues since the 2006 study, but "this progress has been too slow, too uneven and too fragmented to bring violence to an end".  The report stresses that all children are at risk of violence, but the most vulnerable children are those at greatest risk of violence: those with disabilities, those who migrate, those who are confined to institutions, and those whose poverty and social exclusion expose them to deprivation, neglect and, at times, to the inherent dangers of life on the streets.

Chapter 3 of the report addresses violence against children in all settings, including home and the family as well as care and justice institutions. It highlights violence in alternative care institutions as a matter of specific urgency.  It reports that children in care, already facing vulnerabilities due to their circumstances, are at a high risk of violence, abuse, and neglect from the caregivers and that little progress has been made toward addressing this. It underlines that such violence can be more effectively prevented when institutional care can be avoided where possible and where families can be supported to care for their children at home. It highlights the important role of the 2009 Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in that regard, which sets out the policy and practice framework for the protection and well-being of children deprived of parental care or who are at risk of being so. It also finds that the situation of all children in institutions is addressed most effectively by strategies that go beyond the institutional setting to ensure that families and caregivers receive support to care for their children at home where possible, to help schools adopt inclusive teaching techniques and provide appropriate support for all children, and to create a protective community environment for these children. 

To access the full document, please visit:

http://www.bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=32351&themeID=1004&topicID=1029

This study examines the prevalence of maternal and paternal spanking of children at 3 and 5 years of age and the associations between spanking and children's externalizing behavior and receptive vocabulary through age 9. It uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, a longitudinal birth cohort study of children in 20 medium to large US cities. The authors highlight that despite the warnings of the American Academy of Pediatrics about the potentially deleterious effects of spanking and recommendations for families to use other methods of discipline, corporal punishment remains a widely endorsed parenting tool in US families. The use of spanking is highest for preschoolers and school-age children, but even in the first year of life recent evidence finds 11%5 to 15%6 of children spanked and as many as 34% of 1-year-old children in impoverished families in the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project.

This important article explains the process through which indicators of family care for (child) development were drafted and tested in several countries. The article sets out the rational for developing the indicators, the process and conceptual basis for their development and how their validity was tested. This project aimed to develop indicators from a set of items, measuring family care practices and resources important for caregiving, for use in epidemiologic surveys in developing countries. A mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) design was used for item selection and evaluation. The authors explain that measures of family care practices with global application are useful not only for understanding their influence on child development but also for guiding policy and intervention programmes aimed at improving the developmental trajectories of children the world over.  Seven family care domains and seven caregiving-resource domains were initially developed by an expert panel as having global applicability. These 14 domains were later combined into four family care domains: responsiveness and acceptance, support for learning/ stimulating environment, limit-setting techniques, and caregiver responsiveness during feeding and three resources domains: availability and use of alternate caregivers, father's involvement with child, and maternal depression symptoms. 

The Parenting Africa Network (PAN) in partnership with YONECO (Youth and Net Counseling) hosted the 2nd Pan-African conference on parenting on the 16-17th October 2013 in Malawi. The theme of the conference was 'Understanding realities of teenage parenting: a special focus on adolescents (boys and girls) with parenting responsibilities'.  It is estimated that roughly 11% of all births worldwide are to girls aged 15 to 19. The proportion of births that take place during adolescence is about 2% in China, 18% in Latin America and the Caribbean and more than 50% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report highlights that the realities of adolescent parents and the reasons for becoming parents at an early age are multiple and a thoughtful approach to the issue is required to listen and understand, with respect to their specific situations. For many adolescents, the responsibility of raising children at an early age is an obstacle to their educational and professional attainment. In addition, there are health risks due to their stage of development.

The conference's main objective was to highlight these realities and challenges.  It provided an opportunity for 69 delegates from 11 countries to share evidence-based knowledge and information to inform advocacy actions.  It also sought to clarify understanding around parenting teenagers and collect evidence on efforts and actions to strengthen family relationships for the well-being of children. The report provides synopses of all of the events, keynotes and plenary sessions over the two-day period. It concludes with the Mangochi Declaration and Plan of Action that highlights steps required to both bring attention to the issues raised and address the gaps.  The declaration highlights, among other things, the lack of research on parenting programmes in Africa but also the limited dissemination of information concerning parenting, in terms of both scope and languages. The participants also stressed the need to step up efforts towards the prevention of teenage pregnancy and teenage fatherhood by providing young children with appropriate, reliable and comprehensive information related to reproductive rights and responsibilities, and to train health workers and teachers on how to teach about these subjects. The declaration further underlines the importance of providing support to pregnant teenage mothers and fathers and help them find ways to continue their education, and to ensure that teenage fathers are actively involved in their fatherhood roles. 

To access the full document, please visit: 

http://www.bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=32357&themeID=1000&topicID=1000

The Program P Manual is a resource developed as part of the global MenCare campaign that identifies best practices on engaging men in maternal and child health, caregiving, and preventing violence against women and children, through the lens of gender equality. While there is growing recognition of the role that men play in the care of children, the Manual highlights that many still hold to traditional views that say women are primarily responsible for caregiving. The benefits of male caregiving have been shown to be extensive.  Children that have supportive and affectionate paternal role models are likely to have more successful futures, are more likely to question traditional gender roles, and have more positive socializations. Though the main focus of Program P is through the public health sector, the manual also provides tools and resources for organizations that want to work more generally with men as caregivers. It was designed for use by health workers, social activists, nonprofit organizations (NGOs), educators and other individuals and institutions that aim to promote men's involvement as caregivers as one of multiple strategies to promote maternal and child health, family well-being and gender equality.

The Manual is divided into three distinct sections that are interconnected but each dedicated to a different level of the theory of change proposed by this Program. Section One entitled, Fatherhood in the Health Sector: A Guide for Health Professionals on Engaging Men, is designed more specifically for health professionals such as doctors, nurses and midwives. Section Two entitled, Engaged Fatherhood: Group Education for Fathers and their Partners, provides the content, methods and guidelines necessary to facilitate group sessions with fathers who accompany their partner to prenatal (antenatal) care visits. The group education activities are designed to increase men's confidence in their caregiving skills; critically question issues around masculinity, violence and fatherhood; and promote communication between couples and their children. Section Three entitled Mobilizing Your Community, is aimed at activists who wish to create change within their communities on the topic of fatherhood. This section provides tools to create a campaign, build alliances and expand participation in the pursuit of involved fatherhood and caregiving. 

The Open Society Foundation: The Power of Family 

This short film discusses the importance and benefits of early childhood intervention in enhancing development opportunities for children. Early Childhood Intervention is defined as a system of professional services for young children with developmental delays, disabilities, atypical behaviors, social and emotional difficulties, or young children who are very likely to develop a delay before school entry. The film describes numerous developmental benefits to early childhood intervention. These include a greater chance for families to remain together, cost-savings by preventing the need for special education programs later in life and the beneficial emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development potentials afforded.  

To access the full video (7 min), please visit: 

http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/multimedia/early-childhood-intervention-power-family

This moving short film produced by MenCare examines the circumstance (female partner migrating abroad for work) where one man found himself as the primary caregiver to their children.  It details his struggles taking on a non-traditional role in the household as he learns to better appreciate his partner's skill at caregiving.  It also touches upon the social stigma he faces by peers for doing work more commonly assigned to women.

To access the full video (7 min), please visit:  

http://www.men-care.org/MenCare-Films/MenCare-Sri-Lanka-Film.aspx

Maestral International Call for Information

Institutionalised Children: Call for submissions

A new academic journal launching March 2014 entitled, "Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond" is calling for submissions on the topics of mental health of children in institutional settings.

Interested individuals may contact: Dr. Kiran Modi, Founder Managing Trustee, Udayan Care/ Associate Editor of the Journal "Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond": kiranmodi@udayancare.org or ICEB-Journal@udayancare.org