July - August 2015
 

In this edition of the newsletter, BCN highlights recent research, tools and policy briefs relevant 

to children's care.
IN A FEW WORDS
"I always thought I would start an orphanage; but today I believe very strongly that children don't need a house, they need a family. They don't need an institution, they need a home."

- George Ebeneezer, CEO of Beyond Barriers, from A World Without Orphans
FOCUS ON CHILDREN IN RESIDENTIAL CARE
This edition's thematic focus highlights recent research, publications, and updates on the topic of children in institutions or residential care.
This report from Disability Rights International (DRI) outlines the findings from a two-year investigation into the treatment of children and adults with mental disabilities in Mexico City, particularly those in the care of state-funded and private residential facilities.
This paper reviews the empirical literature on the effects of institutionalization on young children's development from the perspective of global child welfare practice and policy.

Aging Out of Care in Ethiopia: Challenges and Implications Facing Orphans and Vulnerable Youth
This interpretive study examines the experiences of 54 Ethiopian emerging adults who had aged out of institutional care facilities.

Transitional Support Programmes for the Child and Youth Care Sector
This booklet was developed by Mamelani Projects, a community development organisation in South Africa. The booklet serves as an easy to use tool and guide for practitioners and programme developers alike. It outlines Mamelani's approach to Youth Development and providing transitional support to young people as they transition out of Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs).

This paper from Hope and Homes for Children and the Roots Research Centre, in collaboration with EuroChild, presents a policy position which argues that, "as the Greek authorities map out the road to long-term recovery, several key steps to reform the child protection and care system should be taken as a matter of priority," including the elimination of institutional care for children, prevention of institutionalisation, and provision of support to young people leaving the child protection system.

Using structural equation modeling the present study analyzed the associations between quality of sibling relationship and self-concept of institutionalized adolescents in Portugal, testing the mediating role of resilience in this association, and the moderating effect of the maintenance of contact between siblings.

Universal Periodic Review - Bulgaria 2015: Lumos' recommendations to protect the human rights of children in the deinstitutionalisation process in Bulgaria
In this paper, Lumos reviews Bulgaria's national strategy on deinstitutionalisation, adopted in 2010, and provides recommendations for ensuring the rights of children in the process.

The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of violence among orphaned children in institutions in Egypt and its consequences on their physical and psychological health status.

Effects of institutional rearing and foster care on psychopathology at age 12 years in Romania: follow-up of an open, randomised controlled trial
This study examined psychopathology at age 12 years in a cohort of Romanian children who had been abandoned at birth and placed into institutional care, then assigned either to be placed in foster care or to care as usual.

This paper describes the diversified approaches in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia to end the placement of children under three in institutions and prevent the separation of children from their families.
NEW RESEARCH AND UPDATES

Understanding the Situation
This first annual report from the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, published on June 10, 2015, sheds light on the social service workforce, an important group of people who help to ensure that effective prevention and support services reach those who need it most.
 
This study aimed to examine the living arrangement of children (both orphan & non-orphan) based on a nationally representative Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2006 and 2011.
 
This article, based on research in progress, discusses possible dangers of child abandonment and neglect, using attachment theory as its theoretical grounding. It considers findings based on two samples (professionals and adoptive mothers) and offers recommendations for the prevention of child abandonment and the protection of abandoned children, with specific reference to Lesotho. 

The lived experiences of children living on the streets of Hillbrow
The aim of this research was to explore and describe the lived experiences of
children living on the streets of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa with a focus on children's mental health and wellbeing.

Exploring the path from foster care to stable and lasting adoption: Perceptions of foster care alumni
This qualitative study explored perceptions of youth with foster care experiences in the US, regarding successful adoption.

Parent-child cohesion, friend companionship and left-behind children's emotional adaptation in rural China
Using cross-sectional data from rural left-behind children aged 10-17 years in the Henan Province of China, the present study examined the roles of father-child cohesion, mother-child cohesion, and friend companionship in emotional adaptation (loneliness, depression, and life satisfaction) among children left behind by both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those with only a migrating father. 

A facade of democracy: Negotiating the rights of orphans in Jordan
Using empirical data and interviews with orphans in Jordan, this article investigates how they experience the patriarchy of law, society, and the state.

Nobody is Allowed to Harm You: A Book for Children and Young People to Help Them Understand What Abuse and Neglect Means
This book is designed to help children and young people understand what abuse and neglect are, and who to ask for help if it happens to them or to someone they know. The book is written in the Serbian context and is available in English and Serbian.

Policies and Standards
Family Support and Alternative Care Expert Meeting in the Baltic Sea Region 2015
Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe gathered at a two-day expert meeting in Tallinn, Estonia on 5-6 May 2015 to discuss alternative care and family support. Together, the participants endorsed a set of recommendations and action plan. For more information, read the background paper and regional report.

Child Protection Index Georgia 2015: Measuring the Fulfillment of a Child's Rights
The Child Protection Index (the Index) is a comparative policy tool, organised and implemented by local and national level civil society organisations, that examines a country's current child protection system using a common set of 626 indicators that measure a country's policy and actions toward greater child protection. This Index measures Georgia's efforts toward child protection in comparison with other countries in the region.

Child Protection Index Moldova 2015: Measuring the Fulfillment of a Child's Rights
The Child Protection Index (the Index) is a comparative policy tool, organised and implemented by local and national level civil society organisations, that examines a country's current child protection system using a common set of 626 indicators that measure a country's policy and actions toward greater child protection. This Index measures Moldova's efforts toward child protection in comparison with other countries in the region.

The Children Amendment Bill No. 2 - Uganda
In 2015, the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda considered the Children Amendment Bill, which has several implications for children's care in the country. The object of the bill is to amend the Children Act Cap. 59, enhance protection of a child, provide for the guardianship of children, provide for inter country adoption, prohibit corporal punishment, and provide for related matters.

Learning from Practice
Household Economic Strengthening in Support of Prevention of Family-Child Separation and Children's Reintegration in Family Care
This paper presents an overview of learning related to the prevention of family-child separation, the reintegration of children into family care, and economic interventions that support both. The paper seeks to contribute to the evidence base related to the ways in which household-level economic strengthening interventions in low- and middle-income countries can help prevent the separation of children from their families and assist in reintegrating separated children into family care.

This study, conducted in eastern Zimbabwe, addresses the gap in current understanding about the extent to which household-based cash transfers differentially impact individual children's outcomes, according to risk or protective factors such as orphan status and household assets.

Promoting Education for Vulnerable Children by Supporting Families: A Holistic Intervention in Uganda
This article reports on the Western Uganda Bantwana Program, which worked with more than 1,000 HIV/AIDS-affected families with the goals of improving socioeconomic status, psychosocial functioning, and educational participation.

From Foster Care to Adulthood: Success Stories
This qualitative study, conducted as part of a Doctoral dissertation, used intensive interviews to explore the trajectory of a small number of youth who have transitioned out of foster care in the US, outlining the social, economic and psychological barriers they faced while also charting the attitudes, behaviors and experiences that allowed them to successfully exit the foster care system and move toward productive adult lives.

BETTER VOLUNTEERING, BETTER CARE INITIATIVE:

UPDATES & RESOURCES

International Volunteering Video
Globalsl.org, a network of universities and nongovernmental organizations advancing ethical global civic engagement and cooperative development partnerships, released a 3.5 minute video highlighting the evidence on international volunteering and service-learning. 
 
From Volunteering to Voluntourism: Challenges for the Responsible Development of a Growing Travel Trend
German and Swiss NGOs Tourism Watch, ECPAT, and fairunterwegs.org have published a report 
on voluntourism, which focuses heavily on the need for adequate child protection measures. The report will be followed by a 
workshop on voluntourism in German-Speaking Europe in October 2015 in Berlin. Volunteer organisations or NGOs interested in participating in this event (that will take place entirely in German language) should email tourism-watch@brot-fuer-die-welt.de.
There were also ensuing discussions at the ITB Trade show in Berlin this spring (video of a panel discussion, partly in English, can be viewed here). 
 
ChildSafe Website Re-Launch
Friends International recently re-launched their ChildSafe website. The site has specific advice and information for how to protect children during travel, working, and volunteering abroad and at home. This follows the release of their powerful video "Don't Create More Orphans" earlier this year. 

International Association of Infant Massage Position Paper on Volunteering in Orphanages
In July, the International Association of Infant Massage in Australia launched a position paper on volunteering in orphanages in order to address the problem of untrained individuals being encouraged to conduct child care and infant massage practice in residential care centres. The release of this position paper was quickly followed by a position paper on the same topic from the Association of Massage Therapists in Australia. 

Beyond Orphanages: Family and Community-Based Orphan Care Webinar
In August 2015, Child Family Health International (CFHI) held a webinar reviewing the situation of children living in residential care facilities around the world. The webinar presenters included John Williamson, Senior Technical Advisor for USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund and co-chair of Better Care Network, and Anna McKeon, facilitator of the Better Volunteering, Better Care Initiative. 

COUNTRY CARE REVIEWS

In this issue, we highlight the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child at its 69th Session held from 18 May- 5 June 2015, with a particular focus on sections addressing children's care.

 

Click below to read the Country Care Reviews for the following countries:

IN THE MEDIA



The Conversation, 13 August 2015

Uncornered Market, 11 August 2015




The Hindu, 2 August 2015

ABC News, 30 July 2015

Thomas Reuters Foundation, 30 July 2015
 
Business Standard, 27 July 2015
 
News Vision, 23 July 2015

 
Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 9 July 2015

CANADA: Adoption series: Open adoptions tricky but rewarding
Vancouver Sun, 9 July 2015

USA: Suit to Accuse New York City and State of Keeping Children in Foster Care Too Long
New York Times, 7 July 2015

CAMBODIA: Cambodia faces uphill struggle to reform its orphanages
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 6 July 2015 

NEPAL: Stop The Orphanage Business: Ramesh Danekhu
The Rising Nepal, 1 July 2015

BANGLADESH: National Convention for Reducing the Impact of Unsafe Migration on Children
The Daily Star, 30 June 2015

USA: How a Group of Female Inmates Won the Right to Live with Their Children 
VICE, 25 June 2015
VIDEOS

A World Without Orphans, Missions Dilemma

Connections for Success, Child Protection Working Group

CPC Webinar: Making the Invisible Visible: Counting Children on the Streets in Malawi, CPC Learning Network

No One Left Behind, The Visionaries

 
EVENTS
Psychosocial Support (PSS) Forum 2015: Love, Care and Protection from Infancy to Adolescence
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 1-3 September 2015

ISCI 2015: 5th Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators "From Welfare to Well-being: Child Indicators in Research, Policy and Practice"
University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2 - 4 September 2015

Family Troubles Symposium: Care and Change in Diverse Contexts
University of Reading, UK, 16 September 2015

 14th ISPCAN European Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Bucharest, Romania, 27-30 September 2015

Penn State's Fourth Annual Conference on Child Protection and Well-Being: New Frontiers in the Biology of Stress, Maltreatment and Trauma
State College, PA, USA, 30 September - 1 October 2015

IFCO 2015 18th Biennial Conference: "Tell Someone Who Cares: Caring for Our Children"
Sydney, Australia, 8-11 November

ISPCAN International Conference on Children and Armed Conflict: Call for Abstracts
Nairobi, Kenya, 7-10 February 2015 
JOB POSTINGS & CONSULTANCY OPPORTUNITIES
UNICEF Call for Proposals: Use of Information Technology in Case Management for Child Protection in Emergencies
Submissions due 4 September 2015

Elevate Children Funders Group: Funding stream analysis of residential care
Responses due 30 September 2015

Catholic Relief Services is Recruiting a Program Director for the 4Children Program in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Application open until position is filled

Catholic Relief Services is Recruiting a Knowledge Management and Communications Technical Advisor for its 4C Project
Application open until position is filled
General Information
Newsletter participants, currently 3,711 in total, work on issues related to the care and support of vulnerable children across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. The purpose of the newsletter is to enable members to exchange information on matters of mutual concern. If you would like to share a document, raise a specific issue, request a newsletter subscription, or reach out in any other way to the Network, please send the information to us at contact@bettercarenetwork.org or visit our website at www.bettercarenetwork.org. Thank you!