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.
Call for answers over number of Scottish children in care reported missing
"Nearly 2,000 children in care were reported missing to the police last year [in Scotland," says this article from the Scotsman.
Being a foster child is traumatic enough. Let’s stop making it worse
This opinion piece from the Boston Globe, written by a former foster youth, Stan Rosenberg, describes the ways in which the child welfare system in the US state of Massachusetts often fails foster children.
Yazidi leaders to allow Isis rape survivors to return with children
"Yazidi survivors groups have embraced a decision by the community’s elders to allow children who are the result of rape by members of Islamic State to return with their Yazidi mothers to their homelands in Iraq," says this article from the Guardian.
After Cyclone Idai, uncertain futures for children left behind
This article from UNICEF describes some of the devastating aftermath of Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe, including the children who lost one or both parents in the natural disaster.
It is time to shatter a few supposed truths about out-of-home care
"Do we ever ask if we are really giving these kids a better life? Many of us grow up locked in a cycle of depression and pain," says Kirsten Gray in this opinion piece for the Guardian.
Lagos empowers 200 household heads
"The Lagos State Government has empowered another 200 household heads of orphans and vulnerable children with economic strengthening tools," says this article from PM News Nigeria.
Keeping up with the caseload: How to recruit and retain foster parents
As the number of children in foster care in the US continues to rise, this blog post from the Brookings Institute highlights the "growing need to prioritize effective recruitment and retention for foster parents, including relative (or kinship) foster parents" and the foster parent recruitment and retention guide developed by the CHAMPS campaign and the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families.
Orphanage Voluntourism – Trafficking on Good Intentions
This podcast episode by Tiny Spark explores how the surge in orphanage volunteers may lead to child trafficking and asks who is benefitting from these experiences: vulnerable children or foreign volunteers?
The Truth About Intercountry Adoption’s Decline
This commentary, co-written by retired Special Advisor to the Office of Children’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State, Susan Jacobs, and adoption and child welfare consultant Maureen Flatley for the Chronicle of Social Change, offers some explanations for the decline in adoptions to the US from other countries over the last decade or so.
The Sudden Departure
This radio segment from This American Life describes an incident in a small town in Tennessee, USA in which nearly 100 people were deported in one day during a workplace raid, leaving many children behind without their parents.