This chapter first traces the etymology of the definition of “orphan” and its attendant “crises.” Then, using examples from Guatemala and Uganda, the authors consider how the idea of an “orphan crisis” has traveled from development to charitable responses and what effects this has on local child protection systems.

Using a practice approach focused on interactions between foreign volunteers and local staff, this study examined the impact of volunteer tourism on Zion Primary School and Tamale Children’s Home (an orphanage), both in Tamale, Ghana.

Across China, children and young people with disabilities confront discrimination in schools.

This report by Human Rights Watch is based on field research conducted in Bacău, Bucharest, Constanţa, Giurgiu, and Ilfov counties in February 2006, and follow-up telephone and email contacts through June 2006.

Russia is home to one of the fastest-growing AIDS epidemics in the world, but the government has done little to address the problem. A growing number of HIV-positive pregnant women and new mothers must make a very difficult choice: whether or not to keep their children.

For street children in Hanoi, Vietnam is falling far short of its obligations under Vietnamese and international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Between 2003 and 2006, Human Rights Watch received credible reports of serious abuses of street children in Hanoi.

This report details the conditions of children held at an unofficial detention center in Kigali, Rwanda, held in overcrowded buildings and suffering from a lack of adequate food, water, and medical care, and subjected to abuse. 

Ce résumé sur les recherches est offert aux églises, aux organisations confessionnelles et aux personnes de foi qui cherchent des informations factuelles sur les meilleures façons de venir en aide aux orphelins et aux enfants privés de la protection parentale.

El presente resumen de investigaciones se ofrece a iglesias, organizaciones religiosas y personas de fe que buscan información basada en pruebas sobre la mejor manera de cuidar a huérfanos y niños separados del cuidado parental.

This study was carried out in rural Arkansas to examine the feasibility and usefulness of a universal screening tool--the Family Map Inventory (FMI)--to assess family strengths and needs in a home visiting program.