Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in low-income and middle-income countries: risk and protective factors

Ruth V Reed, Dr Mina Fazel, Lynne Jones, Prof Catherine Panter-Brick, and Prof Alan Stein

This study involved a systematic review of individual, family, community and social risk and protective factors for the mental health of children and adolescents who were forcibly displaced to high-income countries.

‘For a while out of orbit’: listening to what unaccompanied asylum-seeking/refugee children in the UK say about their rights and experiences in private foster care

Helen Connolly

There is limited information in the child welfare literature on the circumstances and needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children living in the United Kingdom. This article provides insight into the experiences and feelings of these young people by reporting the findings from a narrative-based research project involving 29 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children age 12 to 21 from a variety of African and Asian countries, with the goal of exploring how these children perceived their rights while in private foster care in the UK. 

Community-based surveillance to monitor trends in unaccompanied and separated children in eastern DRC

Rubenstein BL, Spencer C, Mansourian H, Noble E, Munganga GB, and Stark L

A mobile phone-based community surveillance system was piloted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the goal of identifying new cases of unaccompanied and separated children on a weekly basis.

Lessons from introducing a livelihood project for unaccompanied children into an existing child protection programme in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya

Camilla Jones, Trish Hiddleston, and Christine McCormick

This article details the introduction of a livelihood project for unaccompanied children in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, which aimed at strengthening the household economy of foster families and improving the care of fostered children. 

Beyond Detention: A Global Strategy to support governments to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

This report, authored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, calls for a global strategy to prevent the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees in countries around the world, with an initial focus 10+ "focus countries." Among the Strategy's three main goals is the call to end detention of children, which requires a new legal and policy framework, the implementation of the "best interests" principle, alternative and appropriate reception and care arrangements for children (including foster care), and the provision of age-appropriate information to the child.

File

Video: Praise's story​

Child's i Foundation

​This video by Child's i Foundation in Uganda document's the journey of a little girl, Praise, from being abandoned to being placed into to a permanent family. The video shows the tracing process and temporary placement with a foster carer, Ruth.

Video: Reuniting families with Care 4 Kids

Child's i Foundation

In this video Child's i Foundation works with Care 4 Kids, an orphanage for 53 children, which wants to reintegrate children back into families but had challenges convincing the families that they could provide better care. Child's i Foundation organised an open day for families and invited parents who had taken their children back from Rafiki to explain the benefits of children growing up in families.