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This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and characteristics of Kafalah and identify effective strategies to support Kafalah.
It covers the characteristics of Kafalah, its legal implications, what distinguishes Kafalah from other forms of family-based alternative care, and ongoing efforts to promote Kafalah in Eastern and Southern Africa. It concludes with implications for policy and practice.
This document has been produced as part of the regional learning platform on care in Eastern and Southern Africa. The platform and its corresponding…
A short introduction to the key components of successful care reform based on lessons learnt from Eastern and Southern Africa
Although care reform is well established in some parts of the Eastern and Southern Africa, many countries in the region are just beginning their care reform journey. This short paper is aimed at these contexts. It explains what care reform is, the different components of care reform, why care reform is important and how to start a care reform process. The paper is accompanied by a …
Engaging with key stakeholders is an essential part of any transition and must be handled with tact and wisdom. Located in South Africa, the organization Beautiful Gate began its ministry to protect street children and later grew to provide residential programs for children in need. Yet, as they began to learn more about the needs of children in families, they decided to shift away from residential care and expand their services to include the families of the children they served.
As Beautiful Gate broadened and prioritized the role of families, they communicated family strengthening as a…
Beautiful Gate was established in 1994 by a Dutch missionary couple who simply desired to do what was “just, good, and right” for children. It began as a children’s home for children living on the streets in the suburb of Muizenberg in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1999, at the request of the government, a second location was opened in the neighboring township of Crossroads as a hospice for children dying of HIV/AIDS. The hospice eventually moved to a new site in the Lower Crossroads area in 2004. The larger site made possible additional community services, including a medical clinic, community…
People with disabilities have the right to live in the community, according to Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, more than a decade after the adoption of the CRPD by the UN and nearly global ratification, children with disabilities continue to be placed in institutions in every region of the world. Worse still, low-middle income countries that have never had systems of institutionalization have started to build them.
In 2017, the CRPD Committee adopted general comment No. 5 on Article 19 on living independently and being included in the…
This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee's recommendations on the issues relevant to children's care are highlighted, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.
Domestic adoption is usually considered to be in the best interests of abandoned children. However, although ongoing efforts have been made to recruit prospective black adopters, adoption rates remain low. A grounded theory study was conducted to explore how black South Africans perceive and experience the adoption assessment process regarding the adoption of abandoned children. Findings indicated that social workers regard a rigorous assessment process as essential to ensure that adoption applicants are fit and proper to adopt, whereas prospective adopters deem the process unreasonable. The…
This chapter from the South African Child Gauge 2018 focuses on childcare and children’s caregivers in South Africa and aims to address the following questions:
- Who provides care for children?
- How does the state support or undermine care choices?
- Why and how should the state support caregivers?
Abstract
In South Africa, hundreds of black, abandoned children enter the legal child care system on an annual basis and become eligible for adoption. Although these children have a right to be raised in their country of origin, they are often made available for intercountry adoption owing to a lack of prospective domestic adopters. Statistically, middle-class black South Africans present as a significant source of domestic adopters, but the number of black South Africans legally adopting abandoned children is small. A qualitative enquiry, using grounded theory, was conducted to establish…
This video from Mtoto News features interviews with several experts in the field of children's care and protection who discuss the importance of deinstitutionalization, particularly in the Eastern and Southern Africa context, and efforts being made to reduce or end the institutionalization of children.