This is the monthly update of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform published in July 2023. 

This regional portrait describes Catholic-sponsored care for children in Eastern Africa using data from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. The first large study of its kind, it focuses on children who are particularly vulnerable—those at risk of or those who have been separated from their families. Many are in institutional care. This portrait also describes growing efforts, led by women and men religious, to ensure children can grow up in safe, nurturing families or family-like environments rather than institutions.

In this course you will learn from Ekisa Ministries, a nonprofit organization located in Jinja, Uganda, that has been working with children with disabilities for over a decade. The hope is that you will finish this course with an understanding of what it may look like for your organization to incorporate children with disabilities and help them find their way home.

This case study details the experience of Attim, a 54-year-old grandmother from Eastern Uganda who provides care for her grandchildren after they left residential care. Social workers in Uganda often find that placement with extended family members is the most appropriate option for children leaving residential care. 

This case study tracks the impact of family support services to a Ugandan mother and her family during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to prevent family separation. 

This case study documents the story of David's reintegration from a residential care home for children with disabilities in Rwanda to kinship care with his grandparents.

This case study documents the story of Mary, one of thousands of children in Kenya who were sent to family care suddenly without any preparation when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Mary's story highlights the need for family assistance to see a reunification through to successful reintegration.

This is the monthly update of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform published in January 2023. 

This study was designed to be a small insights-based qualitative learning and reflection study to explore catalysts for transition. It was based on interviews conducted with Charitable Children’s Institutions’ (CCI) directors that sought to identify and explore the range of factors that influenced each director’s decision to transition their residential care services, and the interplay between those factors.

The Program Manager will support a 20-year long intergenerational/longitudinal study of war affected youth in Sierra Leone (ISWAY). This study is funded by the NIMH and will advance the understanding of potential biological embedding of stress responses intergenerationally.