Zanzibar’s Department of Social Welfare - a department within the Ministry of Empowerment, Social Welfare, Youth, Women and Children - along with Save the Children UK and SOS Children’s Villages undertook a rapid assessment of residential care institutions in Zanzibar in order to determine how many children were living in children’s homes, their ages, the factors that influenced their institutionalization, the status of their families of origin, and the authorities referring children to these homes. The assessment was carried out in an effort to provide preliminary information to assist the Department of Social Welfare in licensing of all children’s homes in Zanzibar.