As Indonesia’s COVID-19 death toll rises, too many young children are learning the despair of losing their parents.

Richard Daschbach, a now-defrocked 84-year-old US priest has been charged with sexual abuse of 14 girls in the shelter he ran in Timor-Leste. This article tells the story of one of the young women who spoke out about the abuse she experienced.

By drawing on the experiences of parents, advocates, NGOs, and public officials, this side event will invite discussion on how through strengthening families and tools for prevention, societies can reduce the number of children being institutionalized.

UNICEF in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for a Lao National Individual Consultant to develop a National Alternative Care Guideline for Children in Lao PDR, including Minimum Standards on residential care and training modules for relevant government stakeholders.

UNICEF in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for an Individual National Consultancy to conduct the documentation of "Strengthening Community Based Child-Protection Services for Vulnerable Children Project" in Lao PDR. 

A collaborative team between The Jakarta Post and Tirto.id have uncovered facts that confirm that both the state and the Catholic Church allowed a suspected child molester who was running an orphanage in Depok West Java "to walk free from police detention to celebrate Christmas, and a few months later set up a new orphanage and live among vulnerable boys again," according to this article from the Jakarta Post.

A recent inquiry has revealed that the former director of a high-profile Cambodian orphanage founded by a U.S. heiress, the Sovann Komar home, physically and sexually abused the children in his care and committed financial fraud, according to this article from the South China Morning Post.

The Child Protection section, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) is seeking an individual consultant to provide technical support to Country Offices in the East Asia and the Pacific Region and the Regional Office on child protection in emergencies and disability inclusion in emergency programming.

"Child representatives and care leavers from South East Asia have called for increased support for continuing education, psychosocial care, finding jobs and affordable housing in the wake of COVID-19," according to this news article from SOS Children's Villages.

In this joint statement, Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Regional Director East Asia and Pacific and Maalla M'jid, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children express their support for the Joint Statement of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development – Mitigating impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups in ASEAN, which highlights the vulnerability of children, the need to reach them with both social protection and social welfare services and the essential role of social workers.