As a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there are now more than 12 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of these children have been absorbed into their extended families.

This doctoral thesis by Hye-Young Lim examines the laws around the recognition of child-headed households in South Africa, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS.

This quasi-experimental study tested a model of adult mentorship and support to improve psychosocial outcomes among youth-headed households in a rural area of Rwanda.

The alternative care assessment examines the current social welfare systems and processes rather than on the specific quality of care in the various children’s homes as standards have already been developed.

Despite its importance to the poorest in society, the social welfare sector in Malawi has not been performing well. Recognising this, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development (MoGCCD) requested support from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), who have taken a new approach: supporting the Government of Malawi (GoM) to build a better social welfare system starting at the top, within the Ministry. 

This document outlines EveryChild’s approach to the growing problem of children without parental care by defining key concepts, analysing the nature and extent of the problem, exploring factors which place children at risk of losing parental care, and examining the impact of a loss of parental care on children’s rights.

Collection of abstracts from conference presentations

Summary of conference delegates' declarations and recommendations

For this study, surveys were employed to explore the experiences of children in care and their carers about traditional fostering.

This paper describes CARE Rwanda’s Nkundabana model, which mobilizes adult volunteers from the community to provide guidance and care for children living in households without adult support, and discusses lessons learned.