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.

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Orphanage Voluntourism in Nepal and its Links to the Displacement and Unnecessary Institutionalisation of Children

Martin Punaks and Katie Feit - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond Volume 1, Number 2, 01 Sep 2014

This article argues that orphanage voluntourism fuels the displacement and trafficking of children from their families in Nepal and their unnecessary institutionalisation.

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TED Talk: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

TED: Nadine Burke Harris, 01 Sep 2014

In this TED talk, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains how childhood trauma--such as abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse--has real, tangible effects on the development of the child's brain. Children who have experienced high levels of trauma and adverse childhood experiences are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. This is because of the body's stress response system, which is activated repeatedly during childhood by the adversity.

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Protection, Care, and Support for an AIDS-Free Generation: A Call to Action for All Children

UNICEF, PEPFAR, UNAIDS, USAID, The World Bank, The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS, 19 Jul 2014

This call to action is for all who are committed to achieving an AIDS-free generation.

Protection, Care, and Support for an AIDS-Free Generation: A Call to Action for All Children

UNICEF, PEPFAR, UNAIDS, USAID, The World Bank, The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS, 19 Jul 2014

This call to action is for all who are committed to achieving an AIDS-free generation.

Niños, Orfanatos y Familias

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

El presente resumen de investigaciones se ofrece a iglesias, organizaciones religiosas y personas de fe que buscan información basada en pruebas sobre la mejor manera de cuidar a huérfanos y niños separados del cuidado parental.

Children, Orphanages, and Families: a Summary of Research to Help Guide Faith-based Action

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

This Summary of Research provides a concise overview of a range of studies and findings that can inform approaches to caring for children who, through orphanhood, abandonment, or other causes, have been separated from parental care.

Les enfants, les orphelinats et les familles

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

Ce résumé sur les recherches est offert aux églises, aux organisations confessionnelles et aux personnes de foi qui cherchent des informations factuelles sur les meilleures façons de venir en aide aux orphelins et aux enfants privés de la protecti

Hague Note on the Financial Aspects of Intercountry Adoption

Permanent Bureau, Hague Conference on International Private Law, 01 Jun 2014

To address the issues related to the financial aspects of intercountry adoptions, the Hague Convention initiated an Experts’ Group, which met in October 2012 and produced nine Conclusions and Recommendations, which they brought to the Permanent Bureau to publish as a “Note”.

Why Care Matters: The importance of adequate care for children and society

Family For Every Child, Corinna Csaky, 01 May 2014

This report highlights the needs of children without adequate family care, the impact inadequate care on children and society, and why family care is important. In this report, Family for Every Child also issues several recommendations for those in all sectors of society and an example of care reform from Brazil.

Understanding Vulnerability: a Study on Situations that Affect Family Separation and the Lives of Children in and out of Family Care

Irwanto & Santi Kusumaningrum, Center on Child Protection University of Indonesia PUSKAPA UI , 01 May 2014

This report presents analysis and key findings from a study aimed at fully understanding the situations of children in Indonesia that may lead to family separation.