In this article, the author discusses "voluntourism", where volunteers travel to other countries for a week or two for a “project” — a temporary medical clinic, an orphanage visit or a school construction. A 2008 study estimated that 1.6 million people volunteer on vacation, spending around $2 billion annually. 

A U.S. federal court has sentenced a former missionary from Oklahoma to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at a Kenyan orphanage. His arrest and conviction—one case among several recent instances of overseas abuse—highlights the need for more vetting procedures in international volunteering, experts say. 

This column advocates for greater investment and intervention for families at-risk to prevent adverse experiences in childhood.

A woman flew from Istanbul to Paris with an infant girl hidden inside her hand luggage, Air France has said.

Two sisters in Colombia who were separated when they were children after an avalanche destroyed their town have been reunited 30 years later

NYC-based organization offers volunteer "Interim Parenting Program" for biological parents considering adoption for their newborns. 

Legislation will soon be introduced in the U.S. state of Georgia to address concerns stemming from a recent "kinship care" study conducted to assess how the state could improve services to support grandparents and other relatives who take children into their homes when their parents can no longer care for them.

This article from the Los Angeles Times reports migrant children in the government's care were placed in U.S. homes and left vulnerable to human trafficking due to sometimes nonexistent screening by the Department of Health and Human Services. 

A recent U.S. bipartisan congressional investigation reported that migrant children in the government's care fell prey to human trafficking.

Cora Morgan, the children's advocate for Manitoba First Nations, says some child-welfare agencies are breaking the law and discriminating against indigenous family members. She claims some agencies are ignoring capable relatives who could care for children who are taken into care, and are instead placing them in the care of strangers.