A new assessment by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) finds that months of hostilities, displacement and an estimated 72,000 civilian deaths in Gaza are reshaping family structures and leaving a growing number of children without parental care, leaving communities and children to rely on informal kinship care arrangements.

This article reports on a new cross-party committee report urging the UK government to apologise to the thousands of people forcibly adopted as infants between 1949 and 1976. At least 185,000 children were taken from their mothers without consent, a practice survivors describe as traumatic and life-altering.

This article examines the long-term impacts of Australia’s immigration detention policies on children, drawing on personal stories and research to show how prolonged detention has caused significant psychological harm, disrupted development, and lasting trauma into adulthood.

This article tells the story of Maha al-Rubaie, a 56-year-old woman in Gaza who has become the guardian of her infant great-nephew, Hamza, after his entire immediate family was killed in Israeli strikes. Maha had previously raised Hamza’s father, and now she faces the immense challenge of caring for a child born amid war, surviving with oxygen deprivation, seizures, and limited medical care.

This blog from Hope and Homes for Children critiques a recent 60 Minutes segment that portrayed a Haitian orphanage in a positive light, arguing that such narratives overlook the deeper harms of institutional care. Drawing on extensive research and data, the article explains that most children in Haitian orphanages have living parents and are placed there because of poverty, not orphanhood, with orphanages often creating a “pull effect” that separates families.

This article from MaltaToday offers a behind-the-scenes look at the realities of foster care in Malta, using the example of urgent, late-night placements to illustrate the system’s challenges. It follows the work of child protection services, where professionals may receive emergency calls—sometimes in the middle of the night—to quickly find safe homes for young children removed from their families due to neglect, abuse, or other complex circumstances.

This article reports on a recent Barna Group study examining how U.S. Christians view and support orphanages. It highlights a growing shift in awareness, with more Christians recognizing that poverty—not the absence of parents—is a primary reason children enter residential care and that children generally thrive better in family-based environments.

This article highlights the harsh realities faced by street children in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, while showcasing the efforts of local organizations working to support them. It describes how thousands of children—often driven to the streets by poverty, family breakdown, or accusations of witchcraft—survive through begging, informal work, and coping with daily violence, exploitation, and health risks.

This Guardian article reports on a new investigation finding that, under recent U.S. immigration policies, some parents are being deported without their children—often without being given the opportunity to make arrangements for their care. Based on interviews with deported families and advocacy organizations, it highlights how these separations can happen abruptly during detention, leaving children—including very young or vulnerable ones—behind in precarious situations.

This article reports on a new collaboration between the Catholic Church in Thailand and UNICEF to address ongoing gaps in child protection systems, particularly those affecting vulnerable and marginalized children in a context of persistent social inequality.