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This webinar introduced new global inter-agency guidance on kinship care. This guidance was developed in collaboration with a range of agencies including both UNICEF and Changing the Way We Care. During the webinar, panelists shared key lessons learnt on how to support kinship care, drawing particularly on examples of promising practices from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Brazil.
Government representatives from both Zimbabwe and Liberia were in attendance to share their work on kinship care.
Abstract
West African countries adopt child fostering or kinship placement as a traditional form of social protection that balances care and support for families with limited resources, experiencing unforeseen setbacks; or requiring household support. The traditional kinship placement advocates the provision of nurturing and education for the child by the fostering family. However, the traditional kinship placement appears exploited with children taken away from their homes, by such familiar persons as relatives and family friends, who may or may not fulfill the traditional expectations of…
This paper argues that kinship care – the care of children by relatives or friends of the family – represents the greatest resource available for meeting the needs of girls and boys who are orphaned or otherwise live apart from their parents. Using evidence from an in-depth literature review and six country case studies carried out by Family for Every Child members in Ghana, Liberia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe,1 it shows that kinship care is widely used, culturally acceptable, and can support the most vulnerable children in ordinary and crisis periods. However, kinship care also…
Abstract
Background
Kinship care has become a favourable alternative care option for orphans and vulnerable children without adequate parental care in Ghana. However, kinship care practices in Ghana are considered informal cultural practices without formal regulations. The absence of formal regulations could have consequences on the health and development of children due to the lack of proper supervision and empirical assessment of children's needs. In line with recent policy discussions on mechanisms to regulate informal kinship care practices, this study aimed to identify how the…
Abstract
Recognising the signs and finding solutions to the risk and needs of neglected children remains a challenge in child protection practice despite a global increase in the number of reported child neglect cases. This situation is compounded by the impact of cultural practices on how neglect is perceived. Drawing on semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 31 kinship caregivers, this study sought to explore how the culturally informed traditional kinship care practice in Ghana can be considered an intervention strategy for parental neglect. Proactive intervention, prevention of…
Abstract
The provision of care by extended family members and close friends is a common cultural practice in Ghanaian traditional communities. With a recent interest by stakeholders in Ghana to consider kinship care as an alternative care option in child welfare policy, this study explores current kinship care challenges to help identify and address potential setbacks for policy and practice recommendations. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 young adults with experience as Children in Kinship Care (CKC). The participants with CKC experience reported inadequate basic needs,…
Abstract
Traditionally, the involvement of the extended family in nurturing children is seen as an essential cultural practice in most communities in Ghana. Though not formally regulated, often in the absence of birth parents, kin and kith continue to be involved in the care of children to promote family relations and culture. Yet there is little empirical evidence on how to improve the well‐being and safety of children in informal kinship care in Ghana. Thus, this study reports findings from in‐depth interviews with 15 young people, 18 to 23 years, from Banda—an ethnic group where…
Abstract
Introduction
In most sub-Saharan African countries, studies on the impact of out-of-home care experience on the transition of young adults leaving care are limited to those leaving institutional or foster care with no empirical evidence on the experiences of those moving out of kinship care. This study reports findings from interviews with young adults with experience of kinship care in Ghana, about what lessons their kinship care experiences provided in their transition to adulthood.
Method
Twenty-five young adults aged 21–25 years (17 males, 8 females) with kinship care…
Abstract
The need for alternative child care in Nigeria and other developing societies around the world is crucial given the increasing reports and studies on the negative impact of institutional care on child development. Children living in institutions often lack individual care and are cut-off from their communities and cultural identity. Such children also do not experience care in a family environment, hence the need for family-based alternatives. Alternative care such as adoption, community-based care, family strengthening, formal foster care, Islamic Kafalah, kinship fostering, and…
Abstract
Although there is some literature in relation to grandmothers who care for their children full time, there is little that has been written specifically about grandmothers caring for children when the children’s parents are in prison. It was for this reason that this small pilot project was conducted to start to understand and compare the situation of grandmothers caring for children in a diverse range of countries when their parents are in prison. The aim was to begin to draw out the commonalities and differences and to understand what policymakers need to take into account when…