The moment has finally come. Just before Christmas, the technical report and the policy brief of the DataCare Project were ready to be made public. The crown on more than a year and a half of work (not including the preparations, which I was not involved in) on a very ambitious project. It has been a real joy to have been a part of the research team that made it happen.
Continue reading “The Results of the DataCare Project”Tag: #UNICEF
Innocenti’s Report Card Recommendations
In the previous blog (HERE), I discussed some of the finding from the 16th Report Card brought out by UNICEF’s Innocenti last month, ranking 41 rich countries on the well-being of their children. In this blog, I want to have a look at some of the recommendations given in the report.
Continue reading “Innocenti’s Report Card Recommendations”UNICEF Innocenti’s Report Card
At the start of last month, UNICEF launched its 16th Innocenti Report Card, looking at the well-being of children in 41 rich countries. I attended the launch webinar and read the report and want to share some of what I read and heard.
Continue reading “UNICEF Innocenti’s Report Card”Eurochild’s DataCare Project
In November, I mentioned my excitement at learning that Eurochild was planning to start a research project to see whether it would be possible to come to definitions of alternative care provisions that would make data comparable across Europe. The reason why this got me so excited, is that when I was doing the research for Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe (which you can download HERE), the main problems I ran into were lack of data gathered on vulnerable children and data not being comparable between – and sometimes even within – countries.
Continue reading “Eurochild’s DataCare Project”Report on the Simulation Lab Conference
With the sudden interruption of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been some delays in bringing out the conference report. The first priority has to be ensuring the safety and mental well-being of the children. However, while the report is not entirely ready to be brought out yet, work on it has been progressing. So today I would like to give you a sneak-peek at some of the highlights from the report on the outcomes of the Immersive Simulation Lab: Family-Based Care Conference:
The conference attendees included government representatives involved in child protection in Maharashtra including the District Child Protection teams, Child Welfare Committee teams and members of the Government Sponsorship and Foster Care Approval Committees. There were also representatives from UNICEF, SOS Children’s Villages, Miracle Foundation, CSA, Prerana, and Swanath Foundation. A wonderful mix of government and NGO people exchanging ideas and experiences.
Continue reading “Report on the Simulation Lab Conference”Secondary Corona Danger to ‘Orphans’
On Monday, I posted a blog explaining how the Coronavirus is much more dangerous to institutionalised children than to other children, because of their weakened immune system (you can read the blog HERE). Since then I have been struck by another threat that faces a portion of institutionalised children because of Coronavirus, and I want to share that with you.
Continue reading “Secondary Corona Danger to ‘Orphans’”Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes
There is increasing debate among people involved in designing alternative care for children as to whether or not small group homes are an acceptable option that is in the best interest of the children. There is no consensus on this yet. In fact, I have recently put in a bid to be allowed to do the literature review that SOS Children’s Villages is commissioning to get an overview of the research done on this.
Continue reading “Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes”Developing the Report
A week ago the report ‘Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe’ was made available to the public (it can be downloaded HERE). In the previous blog, I wrote about how I ended up starting this enormous project in the summer of 2015. This week I would like to dive into another question that I get asked quite a lot with regards to the report: How did you find all of that information?
Continue reading “Developing the Report”So How DOES One Help?
As the trauma of the expensive December-month is starting to fade, this might be a good time to have a look at what causes you would like to donate to this year. People who really want to help vulnerable children, may feel thrown off kilter after hearing that donating to so-called orphanages actually does a lot of harm, despite the best intentions. This is very understandable. I really hope that this will not shake their determination to make a difference and donate to causes that would be of great help.
So in this blog I want to give an overview of the kind of things that ARE beneficial to vulnerable children and that can use backing and financial support.
Continue reading “So How DOES One Help?”Working on ‘The World List’
In the summer of 2015, I was starting to get a clearer insight into the diverse backgrounds and problems that were the main cause of the institutionalisation of children in a few specific countries. This insight led me to speculate that actually to be able to really tackle the issue of children institutions – and to get an idea of what is needed to keep them out of them – it would be useful to have information about a few specific subjects for each country, to gain an understanding of what is already in place, what are major obstacles and how alternative care and institutional care are handled.
Continue reading “Working on ‘The World List’”