When Mugalu* was adopted, his birth family says they were told they would still be able to speak to him regularly and he would come back for visits. “They said we would be one big happy family,” says his mother, Sylvia, wiping away tears. But Sylvia, 40, has not seen her son since he was adopted from Uganda almost seven years ago by an American couple. She is now fighting to get her son back, taking her case to the high court in Uganda and exploring her legal options in the US.

"Children who were fostered by the Social Welfare Office in 1997 and were allegedly given to an orphanage, were reunited with their biological mother at an emotional ceremony on Monday in Mchinji," according to this article.

Child's i Foundation in Uganda has donated bicycles, smartphones, face masks and bottles of sanitizer to volunteers in Makindye division, Kampala to support them in their work to "sensitize residents about the spread of COVID-19" and so that the volunteers can "reach places that are inaccessible" and give timely reports on the needs of the community, particularly vulnerable children and families, according to this article from the Daily Monitor.

This article from the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports on the increase of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia as a result of the lockdowns enacted to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

This article from BBC News describes the movement of children and young people in Nigeria from Koranic schools back to their homes during the COVID-19 crisis, "one of the biggest ever state organised mass movements of minors in Africa's most-populous state."

In this episode of the Protected! Podcast, Elsa Laurin, the Senior Child Protection Officer for the East and Horn of Africa from UNHCR, tells Hani Mansourian how they and their partner organisations re-prioritised child protection cases in response to the changing situation of shut borders in eastern Africa as the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 loomed.

This blog post from the UN Sustainable Development Group notes the rise in cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC) in Kenya, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for immediate action to address this "shadow pandemic."

Family for Every Child is seeking a consultant to conduct a global mapping of quantitative data collection methods for children on the move.

In this brief segment, CNBC Africa’s Arnold Kwizera speaks with the CEO of Hope and Homes for Children, Mark Waddington, about the harmful impacts of orphanages on children, families, and communities, and the need to move to family-based care.

All over the world, the pandemic has turned children's lives upside down. In this episode of Save the Children Documentary, they share their stories.