This study examines Algeria’s use of kafala as a legally recognized alternative to adoption, highlighting its role in protecting the identity and citizenship rights of children of unknown parentage. While kafala aligns with Islamic principles and offers a protective framework, legal gaps, administrative barriers, and social stigma persist, underscoring the need for reforms to ensure children’s full legal identity and social inclusion.

Bullying in Pakistani orphanages is a serious but understudied issue that threatens children’s physical and psychological well-being. This study surveyed 600 adolescents aged 10–19 from orphanages in Gujrat, Gujranwala, and Lahore to examine the effects of bullying.

This study investigated how conditions in orphanages—such as limited resources, unstable relationships, and overcrowding—affect children’s personality development in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, using surveys of both caregivers and orphans. Findings showed that these factors negatively impact self-esteem and overall development, highlighting the need for greater government investment, adequate resources, and specialized caregiver training in child psychology and development.

This paper examines the benefits of foster care by exploring the experiences of foster care leavers and the perspectives of social workers in Tshwane District Municipality, Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings highlight that foster care placements provide foster care leavers with essential support, including basic necessities, a family-like environment, improved relationships, independence, recreational opportunities, poverty reduction, therapeutic support, and educational benefits.

"Ordinary People, Extraordinary Hearts" is an on-demand training program designed to support kinship carers in Australia in creating safe, nurturing, and healing environments for children and young people in their care.

This response report provides an overview of child protection concerns in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has deeply fractured the primary protective environment for children—the family. Mass displacement has separated millions of children from parents, siblings, and extended relatives, while indiscriminate attacks continue to kill and injure children at alarming rates.

This assessment examined how the child protection system supports children and families in vulnerable situations, with a particular focus on supporting the significant number of refugee children from Ukraine who have come to the Czech Republic since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

This case study showcases Kar Geno’s transition from institutional care to community-based support for children with disabilities in Siaya County, Kenya, guided by CTWWC and Catholic Relief Services. Through family reintegration, disability-inclusive services, and strong collaboration with government and civil society, Kar Geno has become a model for sustainable care reform, reintegrating nearly all resident children while continuing to provide accessible medical and psychosocial support through a community drop-in center.

This case study, developed by an external evaluation team as part of the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative’s five-year evaluation, examines efforts in Kenya to promote and formalize Kafaalah as a recognized alternative family care option.

This case study, part of the five-year evaluation of the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative, highlights Moldova’s Social Service Workforce Strengthening Working Group (WG), launched in 2022 by CTWWC and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.

This case study, part of the five-year evaluation of the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative, examines efforts in Guatemala to strengthen child and family protection through local government engagement.

This case study, developed as part of the five-year evaluation of the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative, examines one of five approaches used to advance care reform and collaboration within the care sector. Drawing on document analysis, interviews, and stakeholder input, it offers insights into the Transforming Children’s Care Collaborative’s role in promoting care reform and informing future investment in the global care movement.

The Final Report: Changing the Way We Care; Year 5 Evaluation highlights the Changing The Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative’s substantial contributions to advancing care reform globally and in demonstration countries—Guatemala, Kenya, and Moldova—through strengthened policies, systems, and stakeholder collaboration.

This study examined the long-term use of the Standard Triple P parenting program in Portugal’s child protection system, five years after 16 practitioners were accredited. Using a SWOT analysis and the Integrated Sustainability Framework, the study identified key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats affecting program sustainability, highlighting the need for deliberate planning to ensure evidence-based parenting programs are maintained over time and effectively reach families in need.

This study explored wellbeing among Swedish adolescents with and without out-of-home care experience, using cluster analysis of 10 wellbeing indicators. It found two distinct groups—one with higher wellbeing and one with lower wellbeing—with girls, unemployed youth, and those with care experience more likely to fall into the reduced wellbeing cluster.

This study found that parental poverty is a key factor pushing children in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria into street life, where deprivation drives them to engage in delinquent activities such as theft, drug peddling, and begging. The findings highlight urgent gaps in child welfare and social protection, calling for targeted interventions to address poverty, improve access to education and healthcare, and strengthen support systems.

This study assessed the situation of street children in Lubumbashi, DRC through a survey of 250 children across the city’s seven municipalities in November 2021. The findings highlight the urgent need for stronger state involvement, organizational support, and parental responsibility to address and reduce the phenomenon of street children.

This article examines how foster parents in Sweden navigate and reproduce public suspicions about financial compensation, drawing on texts and interviews from a three-year research project. While payments are essential for recruitment amid a shortage of foster families, foster parents face sensitivity, suspicion, and blame, leading them to develop strategies to deflect questions and avoid stigma.

This article analyzes data from a qualitative study that aims to investigate the well-being and vulnerability of Swiss children and adolescents in residential care. The empirical findings focus on the importance of digital media for children’s and adolescents’ well-being from their perspectives.

This article traces the evolution of Cambodia’s system for caring for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), shaped by political stabilization, emerging child protection concerns, international advocacy, and gradual state engagement. While Cambodia now has a solid policy framework, weak government prioritization, poor interagency coordination, and limited local capacity hinder implementation, leaving proponents to push for broader political commitment, balanced international support, and stronger responses to root causes such as poverty and migration.

Using nationwide register data from Finland (1980–2020), this study shows that the lifetime risk of children entering out-of-home care more than doubled, with a notable rise in residential care placements. At the same time, the average duration of care shortened, and the likelihood of children returning home before age 18 increased significantly.

Among Syrian migrants who have settled in Türkiye through mass migration, informal kinship care remains insufficiently clear due to gaps in registration and regulatory frameworks stemming from religious and cultural factors. This study expands the literature on informal kinship care among migrant families.

This study analyzes how Omani law protects vulnerable children without family care through foster arrangements, comparing it with practices in Morocco, the UAE, and the principles of Islamic Sharia law. While Oman’s legal framework provides a foundation for care, the research highlights weaknesses in implementation and oversight, recommending stronger monitoring, greater community involvement, and closer alignment with both regional best practices and Sharia objectives.

This study examines the transition experiences of 25 care leavers in Vietnam through semi-structured qualitative interviews. While many showed resilience and made progress, they also faced significant challenges related to housing, work, education, social relationships, and stigma, highlighting the crucial role of external support in sustaining their agency.

Strengthening Families in India: Framework & Guidance, jointly developed by India Alternative Care Network (IACN) and Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC), aims to consolidate existing knowledge, interventions, and promising practices led by government bodies and civil society organizations across India.

Migrant and refugee children arriving in Italy often face significant trauma, having fled war, violence, and exploitation, and survived one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes across the central Mediterranean. UNICEF’s Terreferme project has shown that foster care placements cost municipalities significantly less than residential facilities, with the added benefit of strengthening the social service workforce through training and case management.

This short film was produced by the Global Youth-Led Movement on Ending Violence Against Children for the launch of the World Health Organization’s first-ever report on the public health impact of corporal punishment of children (August 2025).

This research explores how the perception of “feeling like a family” impacts the quality of life for children and adolescents in residential care in Spain. Findings from both qualitative and quantitative studies show that shared activities, affectionate relationships, and supportive environments foster this sense of family, which in turn is strongly linked to improved well-being.

Uganda’s first mapping study on parenting interventions (2020–2021) highlighted the need for evidence-based approaches and clear delivery guidelines to strengthen parenting programming. In response, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development developed a parenting manual to harmonize stakeholders’ efforts, streamline programming, and strengthen families nationwide.

This study compares residential childcare workforce practices across programs in Poland, Spain, and the United States, examining recruitment, training, supervision, and performance monitoring. Findings reveal both shared priorities, such as upholding children’s dignity, and region-specific differences that suggest potential solutions and highlight the value of international collaboration to strengthen training standards.

This paper critically examines the international child rights regime under the auspices of the United Nations, highlighting its historical foundations, key challenges, and the role of global institutions in safeguarding children’s rights. Employing a qualitative research methodology, the paper also offers recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness of child rights protections worldwide.

This article presents an in-depth analysis of children and young people's engagement in Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH NL) influencing work over the past 10 years. It underscores the importance of integrating children's voices into decision-making processes to ensure systemic change and the sustainable protection of children's rights.

This book offers a comprehensive and rights-based legal framework addressing the unique challenges faced by children living on the streets. The book delivers a detailed analysis of international legal instruments—both binding treaties and relevant “soft law”—to clarify how they apply to such children.

This study explores how trust is built within the Mockingbird Family foster care model in Australia, based on interviews with children, carers, and care networks. Findings show that trust emerges through daily interactions, collaboration, and organizational and political support, rather than being a fixed trait. The study highlights the importance of relationship-centered, interconnected approaches to reimagining foster care.

This study examined factors influencing depression among adolescents living in orphanages in Central Aceh Regency, Indonesia. The findings highlight the need to prioritize interventions that strengthen social support networks, while also exploring additional psychosocial factors such as caregiver relationships, trauma experiences, and coping strategies.

India is advancing child protection reforms with a growing focus on ensuring children thrive in safe, nurturing families, supported by collaboration among government, civil society, communities, and families. Insights from the National Family Summit 2025 highlight how multi-level partnerships are driving family strengthening and family-based alternative care, while also charting a roadmap to overcome systemic challenges and sustain progress.

This study piloted a virtual trauma-informed caregiving curriculum, Trauma Competent Caregiving (TCC), to assess its acceptability and usefulness for foster and kinship caregivers in the United States. Despite high attrition, qualitative findings indicate that caregivers found the curriculum relevant and meaningful, though they noted challenges with time demands and called for broader access to similar evidence-based training.

In this book about the birth of our species, The Origin of Language argues that it was not hunting, fighting, or tool-making that forced early humans to speak, but the inescapable need to care for our children.

En enero de 2025, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores del Reino Unido lanzó una iniciativa audaz y visionaria: transformar la vida de la niñez y la adolescencia en todo el mundo para que todas las niñas, niños y adolescentes crezcan en el seno de una familia y estén protegidos de la violencia, la explotación y otras prácticas perjudiciales.

En janvier 2025, le ministre des Affaires étrangères du Royaume-Uni a lancé une initiative audacieuse et visionnaire : transformer la vie des enfants dans le monde entier afin que tous soient pris en charge dans leur famille et à l’abri de la violence, de l’exploitation et d’autres pratiques néfastes. Cet aperçu fournit un aperçu de la campagne et de la Charte mondiale, y compris la manière dont les pays peuvent la signer.

La Carta Global para la Reforma del Cuidado de la Niñez y Adolescencia es un llamado a los líderes mundiales para que actúen juntos para: respetar la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos del Niño y sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad; invertir en las familias, en las niñas, niños o adolescentes egresados del sistema de protección y servicios inclusivos; poner fin a la violencia contra la niñez y adolescencia y a las prácticas perjudiciales como el turismo en las instituciones

La Charte mondiale pour la réforme de la prise en charge des enfants appelle les dirigeants mondiaux à agir ensemble pour: respecter la Convention des Nations Unies relative aux droits de l’enfant et la Convention des Nations Unies relative aux droits des personnes handicapées;
investir dans les familles, les enfants, les jeunes sortant de l’aide sociale et dans des services inclusifs; mettre fin à la violence à l’égard des enfants et aux pratiques néfastes telles que le tourisme dans les orphelinats

This report, based on a study across nine countries, examines how to strengthen the community-level social welfare workforce (CLSWW) as a vital but under-resourced part of national child protection systems. It calls for context-specific strategies that clearly define roles and competencies, build capacity, and align with local norms, mechanisms, and resources to enhance child protection outcomes.

This Toolkit is designed to support parents, caregivers and educators to nurture the spiritual development of children in the early years. It provides critical tools and resources to better equip all those who would assist these key adults in children’s lives to create safe, loving, violence-free and respectful environments, strengthen their positive relationships with children, and provide empowering experiences that allow children to develop holistically.

The Safe and Responsible Exit Guidance developed by Catholic Relief Services provides a structured framework for organizations transitioning away from financial and technical support of residential care facilities. This guidance emphasizes ethical divestment that prioritizes child safety and supports ongoing care reform.

This article examines the increasing phenomenon of orphanage trafficking in Nepal – a practice involving the coercive separation of children from their families and placement into unauthorized care facilities under false pretences, often for financial exploitation. It evaluates relevant constitutional provisions, national child protection and anti-trafficking legislation, and international obligations to assess Nepal’s compliance with its legal responsibilities.

Interviews with care leavers and instructors in Zimbabwe found that institutional life skills programs strengthen resilience, self-reliance, and adaptability, helping youth navigate challenges after leaving care. However, outdated curricula, limited follow-up support, and restricted financial access constrain agency and economic participation, highlighting the need for more relevant training and structured transitional support.

Child adoption remains a complex and sensitive issue within Islamic legal discourse, particularly due to its tension with Western legal frameworks that often permit full adoptive rights, including name changes and inheritance. This study addresses the central problem: how can Islamic law reconcile child protection needs with religious norms that prohibit altering a child’s lineage? The research aims to investigate how the concept of kafalah in Islamic jurisprudence serves as an alternative to formal adoption and how Muslim-majority countries navigate the duality between sharia and civil legal systems.

This study reanalyzes interviews with 20 children in Ireland to explore their perspectives on participation in child protection processes involving their families. Findings show that while children often shared adult concerns, they viewed participation differently—particularly regarding risk, safety, stigma, and the need for ongoing dialogue—highlighting the importance of more child-centred approaches in practice.