Better Care Network highlights recent news pieces related to the issue of children's care around the world. These pieces include newspaper articles, interviews, audio or video clips, campaign launches, and more.
This article from the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports on the increase of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia as a result of the lockdowns enacted to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The Derry-based charity, Kinship Care, "said many of its kinship carers - where a grandparent, other relative or close friend is given guardianship of a child under sometimes quite traumatic circumstances - had been left without food and other essential aid as a result of the pandemic," according to this article from the Irish News.
This article from BBC News describes the movement of children and young people in Nigeria from Koranic schools back to their homes during the COVID-19 crisis, "one of the biggest ever state organised mass movements of minors in Africa's most-populous state."
In this opinion piece for the Hindustan Times, Lalita Panicker calls for the inclusion of children’s rights and security as a fundamental pillar in India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to reopen the economy, noting that "there are several things the government can do, including strengthening systems to find family members of children orphaned or stranded as a result of the virus."
This article from The Hindu describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted new parents in India.
"US officials gave dozens of detained immigrant parents an ultimatum – allow your children to be released from detention without you or face indefinite detention together, according to legal representatives from the country’s three family detention centers," says this article from the Guardian.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently "began distributing a form in all three of its family detention centers that would allow parents to apply for their minor children to be released" to be placed with family members, sponsors the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to this article from NBC News.
This article from USA Today shares the story of a foster care group home in the US state of Michigan where nearly 40 youth living at the "residential facility that serves at-risk teen boys," along with nine staff members, all tested positive for Coronavirus, one boy dying of complications from COVID-19.
This article from the Chronicle of Social Change shines the light on a new pilot program in a county of the U.S. state of California that will provide former foster youth, ages 21 to 24, with $1,000 monthly payments for up to a year.
This article from the Guardian describes the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on international surrogacy arrangements, including the parents, surrogates, and the babies they are or were carrying.