Emergency Care Arrangements

The priority for unaccompanied children in an emergency is to reunite them with their parents, family members, or relatives as quickly as possible, in order to provide them with care and protection. Where this is not immediately possible, children will require emergency care until reunification is possible via documentation and tracing activities.

Emergency care should cater to the child’s basic shelter, security, food and health needs, on a level that is comparable to the local community in order to avoid encouraging further family separations. Children should be kept fully informed of efforts to locate family, and any interim care plans. All agencies offering care must follow and international standards, and coordinate with the local authority.

The preferred care will usually be with temporary caretakers from the community, rather than in institutions, since this provides continuity and greater protection. Children associated with armed forces may require interim care, if immediate family reunification is not possible and in their best interests. Spontaneous care situations, such as kinship, foster care, and child headed households should be screened, monitored and supported to ensure children are protected and their basic needs and rights are being met. In some cases an alternative placement may be necessary. Where family members cannot be located, a longer term care plan should be formulated, however adoption must only be considered after all tracing and reunification activities have been exhausted over a substantial period of time.

Support programs should include all affected children, and should not target or isolate separated children. They should strengthen the community’s natural coping methods and support structures, and will therefore include community and child participation in decision making processes. All placements must be fully documented to facilitate tracing and reunification activities. Reunification should be the immediate goal for all children, unless this is not in their best interests.

The documents in this section relate to emergency care guidelines and examples from around the world.

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Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC): Child Development

Save the Children Alliance, UNHCR, UNICEF and OHCHR, 2001

Training materials on the threats to children’s development from displacement and armed conflict and other emergency situations. It includes guidance on strategies to promote children’s development in adverse conditions.

Women and War: The Detention of Women in Wartime

Charlotte Lindsey, 2001

This article seeks to draw attention to some of the issues affecting women detainees and the applicable international humanitarian standards which afford them protection and assistance.

The Right to Peace: Children and Armed Conflict

Melanie Gow, Kathy Vandergrift, and Randini Wanduragala, 2000

Outlines a comprehensive strategy for dealing with children and armed conflict based on the CRC. Includes detailed policy recommendations on prevention, protection, and reintegration.

Cash-Based Responses in Emergency

Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute , 2000

Argues that cash-based responses should play a growing role in humanitarian response to crises

Education in Emergencies and for Reconstruction: A Developmental Approach

Mary Joy Pigozzi, 1999

Outlines strategies for responding to education needs in communities affected by crisis or chronic instability. Includes a summary of UNICEF’s approach, some practical information on implementation, and an identification of areas where more work is needed.

How to Help Children in the Aftermath of Hurricane Mitch

ISS, ICCB, DCI, and Save the Children Alliance, 20 Jan 1998

Guidance on the importance of preventing family separation and ensuring reintegration with families, communities or country of origin.

Working with Separated Children - Field Guide and Training Manual

Save the Children, 1998

Comprehensive guide to programming for separated children. Includes chapters on agency co-ordination, prevention, documentation, tracing, reunification and emergency and interim care placements.

Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC): Separated Children

Save the Children Alliance, UNHCR, UNICEF and OHCHR, 1998

A training resource pack on preventing the separation of children from their caregivers, assessing and locating separated children, care arrangements, family tracing and reunification, and monitoring and supporting separated children.

Webinar: Learning Session on Alternative Care in the COVID 19 Pandemic (for the Indian Context)

This webinar featured presentations and discussions from practitioners who have experience of working on alternative care (short term and long term) and prioritising family-based care in emergency settings that could be helpful for practitioners in India as they plan a response for children who have lost parents to COVID-19.

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