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.
More households with children had difficulty paying for usual household expenses after Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments ended in December, according to new Household Pulse Survey (HPS) results.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are pouring towards neighbouring countries to flee the Russian invasion. In the three days since the invasion began, more than 115,000 have crossed into Poland alone - some travelling for more than two days, others joining queues 15km (10 miles) long at border points. Those fleeing are mostly women and children, as all Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are being told to stay and fight - in some cases separated from their families. BBC correspondents met them at the borders.
Agencies in charge of fighting human trafficking have expressed concern over the increase of the vice in the country saying children are the most affected. According to Agnes Igoye, the Deputy National Coordinator Prevention of Trafficking in Persons at the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, in 2021 they received 421 incidents that had 1,000 victims involved. Out of the cases reported, 30 were successfully investigated and culprits were charged and convicted under the Prevention of Trafficking Act.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Standing in a room filled with pictures, Judy Winger explains what may drive adults to want to adopt a child. "I think everyone has their reasons. But it's exposure and understanding that these children are really in need of permanency," she said. As someone who has adopted, she understands the willingness.
Refugee children are arriving in countries bordering Ukraine and being whisked to safety by volunteers as their parents return to fight the Russian conflict.
The Child Support Grant (CSG) should be increased so that children have enough to eat, according to a recent research report commissioned by Black Sash. The report on children, social assistance and food security found that at current levels the grant is not enough.
Nearly six children every minute on average lost at least one parent or guardian to COVID-19 and now face a heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, as well as the danger of being put into institutional care, said Save the Children. A new modelling study published in The Lancet today found an estimated 5.2 million children lost at least one caregiver to COVID-19 in the first 20 months of the pandemic, with Peru having the highest rate of orphanhood cases per capita with eight out of every 1,000 children affected followed by South Africa.
There are fewer Nova Scotia children in child protection services today than five years ago despite an increase in the number of referrals over the same period, says the deputy minister of the Community Services Department. “Five years ago, 1,020 children were in care and that number now sits at 884,” Tracey Taweel told a legislative standing committee on public accounts this week.
Her tiny mouth is constantly open, trying to suck in air. Adama Assan is four months old, but tips the scales at a pitiful 3.3 kilograms (7.3 pounds) -- not even the average weight at birth of a typical newborn in Europe. "Normally, a baby of her age would weigh six kilos," said Ousmane Ahmat Mahamat, a supervisor nurse at a ward in a hospital in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, that specialises in infant malnutrition.
Zambia has made significant strides in the past two decades to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes. The maternal mortality rate dropped nearly 300 per cent in 16 years - from 729 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2002, to 278 deaths per 100,000 in 2018. What has been critical in this achievement is greater availability of skilled midwifery personnel. The number of births assisted by a skilled attendant more than doubled over the same period, from 42 per cent in 2002 to 80 per cent in 2018.