Displaying 1 - 10 of 10
ABSTRACT
Care for AIDS orphans in southern Africa is frequently characterized as a “crisis”, where kin-based networks of care are thought to be on the edge of collapse. Yet these care networks, though strained by AIDS, are still the primary mechanisms for orphan care, in large part because of the essential role grandmothers play in responding to the needs of orphans. Ongoing demographic shifts as a result of HIV/AIDS and an increasingly feminized labor market continue to disrupt and alter networks of care for orphans and vulnerable children. This paper examines the emergence of a small but…
Kinnected is a program run in 10 countries by the organization ACCI Relief aimed at preserving and strengthening families and assisting children currently in residential care to achieve their right to be raised in a family.
This document provides an overview of the issues related to residential care, and the detrimental impacts of institutionalization on children. The document presents steps to deinstitutionalization and best practices for child protection, family preservation, and family reunification.
The document highlights the need for ethical volunteering which does not…
A document containing the policy for foster care and adoption in Lesotho.
This document contains the Procedures and Practice Guidelines for Foster Care and Adoption in Lesotho. It is complementary to the country’s Foster Care and Adoption Policy, a framework meant to facilitate the smooth and effective implementation of Part VIII of the 2011 Children’s Protection and Welfare Act bearing the title ”Fosterage and Adoption”. These Procedures and Practice Guidelines are intended to create a common platform and also to ensure the highest ethical standards are practised in delivering these two forms of alternative care.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of the ‘Imbeleko and social connectedness’ project was to conduct a cross-sectional study in order to explore and describe indigenous ways of care and support to inform policy and intervention. Theoretically the study is grounded in frameworks of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), social connectedness, child and human development, as well as psychosocial well-being and support. Methodologically, a concurrent mixed method design was used. Participants were conveniently sampled (n=430; elders=240; youth=190; men=150 and women=280) in collaboration with Nelson…
This document presents the Kingdom of Lesotho's National Multisectoral Child Protection Strategy 2014–2018 and a Costed Plan of Action for 2014-2016. The document is a more detailed operational document, setting out a road map for actions from July 2014 through to March 2017.
Child protection is the protection of boys and girls from 0-17 years from abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect and abandonment. Abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional or related to stigma, including disability and HIV-related stigma. Child protection violations can…
ABSTRACT
Abandonment creates risks for the wellbeing of children, while compromising their prospects for social adjustment and advancement. This implies pressure on a country's fiscal base through probable lifelong dependence on public resources. The need for prevention of child abandonment in Lesotho and elsewhere can therefore not be overstated. This article, based on research in progress, discusses possible dangers of child abandonment and neglect, using attachment theory as its theoretical grounding. It considers findings based on two samples (professionals and adoptive mothers) and…
Poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and food insecurity are currently the biggest threat to the survival, care, protection and development of children in Lesotho. Together, they are constraining the provision of basic social services and jeopardizing the protection of children.
The care and protection of this overwhelming number of children deprived of their parent/s and without the nurturing and protective environment of their primary caregivers is a national challenge. It is also concerning that there is an absence of appropriate policy and a legislative frame work specifically…
As the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be experienced most severely in Southern Africa, 14% of children are now orphans and 48% of these children have been orphaned due to AIDS. These children are often uninformed about their rights and have difficulty accessing the support to which they are entitled, particularly if they do not have the support of a parent or caregiver. This report reviews legal and policy frameworks to protect the rights of vulnerable children, particularly those affected or infected by HIV/AIDS in 10 Southern African countries. The countries included are:…
The devastating consequences of HIV/AIDS on African societies, and its particular impact on children, is requiring every organisation involved in fighting the epidemic to find new strategies to address adequately both the scale of the problem and its duration. The crisis of children left behind by AIDS is a humanitarian, development and human rights challenge of unprecedented proportions.
Although there have been substantial gains in improving overall child survival, these gains are being eroded in African countries hardest hit by the epidemic. The scale of the epidemic on this…