Preventing Separation

Children are highly vulnerable to separation from their parents in conflict, displacement or disasters. Families may flee for their safety and lose loved ones in the chaos, parents may leave their children or send them away for their own safety or in the belief they will be better cared for by others. Children may lose their parents to disease, injury or death, while others may be abducted by armed forces, or trafficked.

Relevant authorities and organizations should provide coordinated action to reduce separation and endeavour to keep children as close to their parents, relatives and community as possible. When the possibility of separation can be anticipated, such as when an attack is possible or a movement of a population is anticipated or planned, community education should be undertaken. Families should be alerted to the risks of separation and encouraged to take precautions. Such precautions may include ensuring their child has undergone birth registration, teaching children their full names and addresses, encouraging children to wear name tags at all times, agreeing on a meeting place in case of separation, and making sure children are accompanied by a known adult whenever possible. This is particularly important when there are high risks of sexual violence, abduction and trafficking. In circumstances where the evacuation of a population is necessary, family groups should be moved together. Children should not be evacuated on their own.

Agencies should endeavour to avoid unnecessary separation by ensuring that households have adequate basic provisions. All services such as food aid, health services, and emergency care should be reviewed to ensure they do not encourage the separation or abandonment of children.

This section includes information on the causes of separation, how to assess a situation, and guidance on community messages and practices to reduce the incidence of children becoming separated.

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Children’s Identity Rights in Ukraine – Russian Invasion

Child Identity Protection (CHIP), 01 May 2023

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, CHIP President, discusses the measures in place to ensure that the many children that crossed the Polish/Ukraine border alone travelled with identity documents that would allow them to access child protection measures as they proceed on their journey.

Learnings: Promoting Positive Caregiving for Children at Risk of Separation or in the Process of Reintegration in Kenya

Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC), 01 May 2023

This CTWWC brief describes the family strengthening approach and the people who work with families and children. It shares reflections from facilitators of parenting sessions and the caregivers, themselves.

Gatekeeping as a Systematic Process: Preventing Child’s Separation

IACN, 28 Apr 2023

This webinar was organized by India Alternative Care Network (IACN) in association with Miracle Foundation India, on April 28, 2023, with the objective to understand gatekeeping, it's components, tools, mechanisms, stakeholders and their role in gatekeeping and learning some promising practices at the primary and secondary levels of gatekeeping.

Strengthening Families: How Family Strengthening Can Help Prevent the Unnecessary Separation of Children from their Families

SOS Children's Villages, 01 Apr 2023

This document makes the case for the importance of investing in family strengthening in countries across Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It has a particular focus on support for families so that any unnecessary separation of children from their families and placement in alternative care can be prevented.

Strengthening Families: Parents' Experiences at the Front End of the Child Welfare System

The Center for the Study of Social Policy, 20 Mar 2023

This presentation is by the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance and their colleagues regarding a project they have been working on in partnership with parents to identify alternatives to CPS investigations.

We Must Provide a Family, Not Rebuild Orphanages

Human Rights Watch, 13 Mar 2023

This Human Rights Watch report documents risks to children from institutions in areas directly affected by the conflict as well as those evacuated to other areas of Ukraine or to European countries.

Learning Brief: Family-Based Alternative Care

Changing the Way We Care, 01 Feb 2023

This learning brief was developed as part of Changing the Way We Care's 2022 annual report and shares learning on family-based alternative care from Guatemala, Moldova, India and Kenya and links the reader to additional CTWWC resources on the topic.

Preventing Family Separation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Uganda

UNICEF, Changing the Way We Care, Child's i Foundation, 31 Jan 2023

This case study tracks the impact of family support services to a Ugandan mother and her family during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to prevent family separation.

Keeping Care in the Family: Strategies for Preventing Child-Family Separation

ESARO Regional Learning Platform, 26 Jan 2023

This UNICEF ESARO webinar discussed strategies for building strong families and communities and preventing child-family separation in the region.

Cost Utility of Supporting Family-Based Care to Prevent HIV and Deaths Among Orphaned and Separated Children in East Africa: A Markov Model–Based Simulation

Marta Wilson-Barthes, Paula Braitstein, Allison DeLong, David Ayuku, Omar Galárraga, Lukoye Atwoli, Edwin Sang, , 22 Dec 2022

Strengthening family-based care is a key policy response to the more than 15 million orphaned and separated children who have lost 1 or both parents in sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis estimated the cost-effectiveness of family-based care environments for preventing HIV and death in this population.