A regional Save the Children participatory research initiative was undertaken to build knowledge on endogenous care practices within families and communities, especially informal kinship care, in order to better understand how the practice works and provide recommendations for programming to increase the care and protection of children. The research was conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and was primarily qualitative and exploratory. Similar research was underway in Niger and was planned for Senegal. More than 1100 stakeholders were consulted during the research process, including children living in kinship care, kinship care givers, and other relevant stakeholders. Child researchers were actively involved in each stage of the research.
This Kinship Care Album was also produced as a compilation of documentation by children who participated in the research, including resource maps, body maps, photos of focus group discussions and observations by child researchers, pictures and letters from children highlighting their experiences of living in kinship care, their views and recommendations about life in kinship care.
