Across Africa, there are many young people who do not live with their biological families and grow up in alternative care. Despite knowing that African young people who grow up in care can struggle as they move into adulthood, there is very little research on leaving care in African countries. To help increase understanding of careleaving in Africa, a group of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast in the UK, University of Johannesburg in South Africa, University of Ghana and Makerere University in Uganda came together to do this research. They tested a range of methods to find out more about the experiences and views of young people leaving care in four African countries. They also wanted to see if these methods could be used in larger studies in the future.
This report is a short summary of the main findings from Building Positive Futures: A Cross-Country Pilot Study on Youth Transitions from Out-of-Home Care in Africa, written for youth who participated and other interested young people. It has been co-written together with the care-experienced peer researchers who worked alongside the academic research team to gather and analyse the data.
