Better Care Network highlights recent news pieces related to the issue of children's care around the world. These pieces include newspaper articles, interviews, audio or video clips, campaign launches, and more.
"The number of children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who have been orphaned or left unaccompanied due to the Ebola epidemic has more than doubled since April, requiring a rapid ramp-up of specialized care in the Ebola-hit provinces of Ituri and North Kivu," according to this press release from UNICEF.
In this blog post for Save the Children, Rebecca Smith, Senior Child Protection Adviser at Save the Children, writes about access to education (or lack thereof) as a driving force for the institutionalization of children around the globe.
In this piece for Christianity Today, Krish Kandiah writes about the Christian community's support for orphanages around the globe and how their well-meaning support has contributed to the separation of families and other negative impacts on the wellbeing of children.
"Christians are being urged to radically re-think their investment in overseas orphanages and consider giving instead to family-based forms of care," says this article from Christian Today.
This article and corresponding video from Vice News explores the orphanage industry in Uganda.
This post by the Co-founder of GoPhilanthopic Foundation, Lydia Dean, calls on donors to practice "Informed Philanthropy," particularly in the case of funding orphanages.
"Maori groups in New Zealand are taking to the streets to protest family separations carried out by the child welfare agency and a planned development on their ancestral lands," according to this article from CNN.
According to this article from the Guardian, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has reported that over 900 children have been separated from their families at the US border with Mexico after a judge's order last year "that the practice be sharply curtailed."
A former orphanage owner in China, once nicknamed "Love Mother," has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for extortion, fraud, forgery and disturbing social order, according to this article from BBC News.
"While all the focus has been on [recent headlines in Kenya] and the ensuing drama," writes Simon Njoroge in this piece for the Elephant, "a more profound discourse concerning the suitability of the orphanage as a model of care and protection of children has been ongoing for some years among policymakers, practitioners and childcare advocates."