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On 26 December 2004, a powerful tsunami washed over countries along the rim of the Indian Ocean, resulting in enormous loss of life and leaving in its wake thousands of children suddenly rendered parentless or devoid of familial caregivers. Subsequently, a project to assess appropriate alternative care choices for children without primary caregivers in Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Thailand took stock of tsunami-related responses as a basis for identifying sustainable and viable models, good practices and lessons learnt with regard to the impact of the disaster on the lives of children.…
Through participatory research this study examined the nature of violence, including psychological abuse, against orphans in parts of Uganda devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The report highlights the types, causes and psychological impact of stigmatisation of and discrimination against orphans; World Vision programme responses to orphans and vulnerable children; and recommendations for dealing with violence and abuse against children affected by HIV/AIDS.
The study found that stigmatisation of and discrimination against orphans are themselves violence. This also lead to different…
Although previous research often assumes that household structure is exogenous, the results of this paper provide strong evidence against the validity of that assumption. This paper analyzes a household’s decision to adjust its composition by sending and receiving children and finds that a household is significantly more likely to send out a child if it experiences a negative income shock, has a better quality social network, or has additional children in a given age and gender class. Quantifying the magnitude of this impact shows that increases of one standard deviation in a household’s…
In almost all armed conflicts, mass population displacements, natural disasters and other crises, a number of children become separated from their families or from other adults responsible for them. These children form one of the most vulnerable groups in these situations, often deprived of care and protection. Most can be reunited with parents, siblings, members of the extended family or other adults whom they know and who are willing to provide for their care.
Action on behalf of unaccompanied and separated children should be guided by principles enshrined in international standards. The…
Of the millions of children throughout the world who are in out-of-home care, most are being looked after by grandparents or other members of their family. This form of care – known as kinship care – is indeed the most significant “alternative care” solution in a wide variety of countries.
While there is a considerable a priori advantage for a child to be looked after by family members or others familiar to him or her, often in the original community, kinship in itself is no guarantee of welfare, protection and ability to cope. Yet kinship care is often subjected to far less…
We examine the impact of orphanhood on children’s school enrollment in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries. Although poorer children in Africa are less likely to attend school, the lower enrollment of orphans is not accounted for solely by their poverty. We find orphans are less likely to be enrolled than are non-orphans with whom they live. Consistent with Hamilton’s Rule, the theory that the closeness of biological ties governs altruistic behavior, outcomes for orphans depend on the relatedness of orphans to their household heads. The lower enrollment of orphans is largely explained caregivers…
This article evaluates the impact of a large cash transfer program in South Africa on children’s nutritional status and investigates whether the gender of the recipient affects that impact. In the early 1990s the benefits and coverage of the South African social pension program were expanded for the black population. In 1993 the benefits were about twice the median per capita income in rural areas. More than a quarter of black South African children under age five live with a pension recipient. Estimates suggest that pensions received by women had a large impact on the anthropometric status (…
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic strikes at the heart of family and community support structures, large numbers of older people are assuming responsibility for bringing up orphans and vulnerable children. Family structures are changing. Often the middle generation – both men and women – is completely absent, leaving the old and young to support each other.
This means that families of older carers and orphans and vulnerable children are compelled to take on new roles. Older people make up a significant proportion of the poorest, and HIV/AIDS exacerbates the extreme poverty faced by older-…
Developing effective interventions to mitigate the devastation HIV/AIDS causes among children and families requires giving careful attention to both ends of the epidemic’s spectrum of impacts. It is vitally important to understand the problems on a human scale, what happens to parents, children, and orphans’ guardians. But this perspective, by itself, is not adequate to guide a strategic response to these problems. It is also essential to keep in mind the magnitude and scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its collective impacts. Developing programs that significantly improve the lives of…
New policy in China allows court applications to revoke the guardianship of parents or authorized guardians if they refuse to perform their custody duties for more than six months.