Children Affected by Poverty and Social Exclusion

Around the world, poverty and social exclusion are driving factors behind the placement of children into alternative care. Families give up their children because they are too poor to care for them, or they feel that it is the best way to help them to access basic services such as education and health care. Discrimination and cultural taboos mean that girls, children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children with HIV/AIDS and children born out of wedlock, make up a disproportionate number of children abandoned into alternative care.

Poor-quality alternative care leads to a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. With limited family-based alternative care options in many countries, children often end up in institutional care. Already marginalized by poverty or stigmatization, they risk becoming further excluded from society, as they grow up separated from their families and communities. In the worst cases, inadequate or unsafe care standards expose them to neglect, violence and abuse. When they eventually leave institutional care, young adults may then struggle to reintegrate into their communities and face high rates of homelessness, unemployment, chronic poverty, depression and even suicide.

Greater political and financial commitment is needed to tackle the poverty and social exclusion that drives families to give up their children. This includes wide-ranging measures to combat poverty, discrimination and stigmatization, to change attitudes towards single parenthood and disability, and to adopt social policies promoting family empowerment and parenting skills. Greater priority must also be given to developing good-quality family-based care options, such as foster care and adoption, for the girls and boys who need alternative families.

The documents in this section examine the relationship between poverty, social exclusion and placement of children in alternative care.

Displaying 31 - 40 of 507

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Unaccompanied Refugee Minors: Prevalence, Contributing and Protective Factors, and Effective Interventions: A Scoping Review

Charles Oberg, Hayley Sharma, 26 May 2023

The objective of this global study was to review the current literature regarding PTSD in unaccompanied refugee minors (URM). The authors concluded that the high levels of mental health problems experienced in URM are due to exposure to traumatic experiences, separation from parents, and lack of social support.

Why and How do Parents Secretly Abandon their Children? The psychosocial burden they went through: Qualitative case study in Gondar City, Ethiopia

Yassin Mohammed Yesuf, Adonawit Ayalew Bewketu, Habib Seid Ahmed , 19 May 2023

This study explored the lived experiences of mothers/fathers who secretly abandoned their children in Ethiopia.

Решение проблемы самоубийств в контексте гуманитарной деятельности

Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, 22 Dec 2022

Это руководство направлено на оказание поддержки исполнителям программ, координаторам и другим гуманитарным организациям в борьбе с самоубийствами и членовредительством в гуманитарных условиях.