Hope and Homes for Children, in partnership with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), has conducted a national survey of all institutions for children in Rwanda to obtain an accurate picture of the current institutional system and the children living within it which can be used to inform decision-making regarding the implementation of the reform strategy and provide a baseline against which progress can be measured in the future.

This briefing note, produced by an Interagency Working Group on children without parental care, is designed to highlight the vulnerability of children to violence in the family and alternative care settings, and to encourage members of the CAT Committee to consider the potential added value of reference to the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.

In this TED video, Georgette Mulheir, CEO of Lumos, an NGO dedicated to ending worldwide systematic institutionalization, describes how orphanages can cause irreparable damage to children both mentally and physically and urges to end reliance on them by finding alternate ways of supporting children in need.

In this TED Talk, poet and playwright Lemn Sissay tells his story of growing up in foster care in the UK. 

The purpose of this review was to identify evidence-based early response strategies and interventions for improving the outcomes of children outside of family care, including children of and on the street, institutionalized children, trafficked children, and children affected by conflict and disaster, and who are exploited for their labor. A conclusion was drawn that there is a strong need for strengthening the evidence base regarding the effectiveness or early assessments and responses to children living outside family care and for using evidence to guide operational policy and practice.

This paper aims to raise awareness on the perverse effects of institutionalisation on children and it calls for comprehensive system reforms, starting with a transition towards family and community-based care. It highlights country level lessons learnt in the European context that demonstrate how deinstitutionalisation can be achieved in practice.

This briefing paper seeks to address key misunderstandings about de-institutionalisation. It explains what it is and what it is not and addresses key questions often asked about the need for such institutions, the role they play and the impact of this transformation and what it entails.

The lack of care and protection facing children is a global crisis. This paper is part of an inter-agency series originally developed to feed into the global thematic consultation for the post MDG framework: ‘Addressing Inequalities. The Heart of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Future We Want for All.’ It looks at the relationship between this lack of care and protection and inequality. It explores how inadequate care and protection produces and contributes to inequalities and how inequality is itself a cause of inadequate care and protection. The paper also examines the long-lasting impact of inadequate care and protection which greatly affects children’s life chances into adulthood, suggesting that inadequate care and protection is in itself a form of inequity.

The report provides guidance on achieving law reform which gives children in alternative care and day care the protection from all forms of corporal and other cruel and degrading punishment that is their absolute right.

This data pack, produced by the Department for Education, aims to summarize national data about children who leave care aged 16 and over and outcomes of care leavers at age 19. The pack was also developed to help local authorities to compare their performance with others and to investigate issues such as age of leaving care and placement stability on the outcomes of care leavers.