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.
In this blog post from the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Sarah Chhin - technical advisor to M’lup Russey, an NGO in Cambodia that assists orphans and vulnerable children - describes an incident in which foreign volunteers tried to block efforts to close an orphanage in Cambodia and reintegrate those children into families, describing the impacts of orphanage voluntourism and calling on volunteers, agencies, and charities to support communities and families rather than institutionalization.
In this blog post from the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Stacie Ellinger of Children in Families (a Cambodian NGO) writes about a new program that CIF has launched called Rok Kern, which "offers an alternative program to community groups that would ordinarily visit orphanages in Cambodia."
In this opinion piece for the Christian Post, Kristi Gleason, vice president of global programs at Bethany Christian Services, explains why the US Christian community and others should be working to end the institutional care of children and promote family reunification and family-based care for children.
In this blog post, Stephen Ucembe, Regional Advocacy Manager for Hope and Homes for Children in East and Southern Africa, explores the differences in relationship experiences between children who grew up in orphanages and those who grew up in families.
This article from the Washington Post describes the threats to families in Venezuela today, including the instances of family separation due to poverty and lack of resources.
The Chinese government is increasing its financial support to vulnerable children, particularly orphans, left-behind children, and children living in poverty, according to this article from Xinhua Net.
"As many as 880 children, including 249 girls, were rescued from 64 child care homes operating in various districts, without meeting minimum standards prescribed by the existing law," according to this article from the Himalayan Times.
"Unlike most developed countries, which place the majority of children who are abused, neglected, or can’t live with their parents for other reasons in foster homes, Japan puts more than 80% of the 38,000 such children in residential-care facilities, according to government figures," says this article from Reuters.
"Up to 40 new areas will benefit from £15 million to expand promising innovative approaches to keeping families safely together," says this news release from the UK Department for Education.
A sixteen year-old boy from Guatemala has died in US custody, the fifth child to die in migrant detention in the US since December, according to this article from the Guardian.