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.
For most children, nationality is clear-cut. Most countries pass nationality down to children who are born to at least one of their citizens, while a smaller number grant nationality to any child born on their territory. But citizenship laws are by nature more exclusive than inclusive. For children whose parentage or family structure is not recognized by the state, obtaining nationality and related documentation can be a daunting challenge.
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.
In Australia, on any given day, about 43,000 children have a parent in prison. We have to use the word “about”, as there is no official process to identify this group of children. There is no specific oversight and no special supports. Despite the state removing their parent, there is no government department responsible for them. A new parliamentary inquiry has been set to try and fix this. It cannot come soon enough.
An estimated 33% of children aged 5 to 17 in Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province have experienced child trafficking, and 36% have experienced child labor, according to new research from the African Programming & Research Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) at the University of Georgia’s Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach (CenHTRO).
Carrying photographs of nearly 200 other families that have been separated from their loved ones, migrant farmworkers, child and elderly care workers spoke about the crisis of family separation created by Canada’s immigration laws.
Increased support for care leavers and new legislation to reduce out of area placements must also be introduced as part of a major reform of the children's social care system, according to a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for looked-after children and care leavers. The report, which reveals the results of a spotlight inquiry on the care system, will feed into the upcoming Care Review.
Leaders of self-proclaimed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine announce plan to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents to Russia.