This New York Times video documents how an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has affected a vulnerable group of children living in an orphanage, showing how the arrival of an infected newborn triggered a rapid health crisis.

This article highlights a major milestone in child protection reform in the Nisporeni district, where no children under the age of six are now living in residential care institutions. This achievement follows several years of coordinated efforts by UNICEF, the Moldovan government, and partners to deinstitutionalize young children and expand family-based and community care alternatives.

This statement from UNICEF Tajikistan announces and welcomes the government’s adoption of its first-ever National Programme on the Protection of Child Rights (2026–2030), describing it as a major step toward strengthening the country’s child protection system.

The Guardian article is a deeply personal account of an adoptee who reconnects with his birth parents decades after being forcibly separated from his mother at birth in 1970s Britain, a time when social stigma and institutional pressures led many unmarried women to relinquish their children.

This article reports on a major policy shift in Queensland, Australia, where the government has announced plans to remove children under the age of five from residential care settings following findings from a Child Safety Commission of Inquiry.

This Guardian article reports on a major inquiry into Victoria’s child protection system in Australia, which found that dozens of vulnerable children who later died had previously been assessed as “not at risk” despite repeated reports and warning signs.

This Alliance magazine feature, examines how global funding systems have unintentionally sustained institutional care for children by financially incentivizing orphanages, even though most children in these settings are not orphans and have living family members.

This article reports findings from Malawi’s Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare showing that 88% of children living on the streets have at least one living parent, challenging the common assumption that street-connected children are primarily orphans.

This opinion article argues that while Christian churches have historically supported orphanages and residential care as a way of living out their faith-based call to care for vulnerable children, growing evidence suggests this model is often harmful and should be rethought.

This World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) statement calls on churches, ministries, and donors worldwide to shift away from reliance on institutional care (such as orphanages) and instead prioritize family-based care for vulnerable children.