Residential Care for Abandoned Children and Their Integration Into a Family‐based Setting in Uganda: Lessons for Policy and Programming

Abstract

This article describes a model of care for abandoned and neglected infants in need of urgent physical, social, and medical support as implemented by the Child's i Foundation, an international, nongovernmental organization operating in Uganda. The model discounts the need for long-term care of young children within institutions and challenges the basis for intercountry adoption. Underpinned by the essentials of care continuum provided under the Uganda National Alternative Care Framework (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, 2012), the model emphasizes the need to effect the reintegration of the separated child within the family of his or her birth, or locally organize foster care or adoption. Highlighting policy and programming lessons, the model showcases a holistic approach to the problem and puts emphasis on interventions that are protective, promotional, and transformational and the use of a community-oriented approach. The model offers guidance to both government and nongovernment actors in addressing the problems of child neglect and abandonment through the implementation of the alternative care framework.

Sexual, Reproductive Health Needs, and Rights of Young People in Slum Areas of Kampala, Uganda: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Unaffordability of contraception services is a likely correlate of Uganda’s 31–40% rate of unwanted pregnancies, which is one of the highest in the world [52, 53]. Unaffordable contraceptive services could be one of the distal determinants of the common occurrence of child abandonment in Kampala [54]. Evidence suggests that teenage school girls who fall pregnant drop out of school [55, 56], a double tragedy that further entrenches them and their offspring into a cycle of poverty due to missed education opportunities.…”

Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues on the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk: The Articles in Context

“…Walakira, Ochen, Bukuluki, and Allen () report a similar situation in Uganda, but a different type of intervention. The country is extremely impoverished, there are 40,000 children in institutions, adoption is not culturally accepted, and most institutions are globally deficient.…”

“…While Wright et al (), Walakira et al (), and Lecannelier et al () represent “bottom‐up” attempts to promote welfare reform, two articles report more top‐down strategies in which government was involved from the beginning to change services in a large geographic area. Johnson, Dovbnya, Morozova, Richards, and Bogdanova () describe a unique collaboration between the government Ministries of Health and of Social Policy, KPMG financial services corporation (http://www.kpmg.com), and the private organization Firefly International (http://fireflyinternational.org/) to introduce early intervention (EI) and family support services in the Nizhny Novgorod Region 260 miles east of Moscow, Russian Federation.…”

The Challenges Facing Children Reunified With Their Families From an Orphanage in Ghana

“…Several of them experience challenges with their education, some even dropping out of school which increases the risk of child labour and marriage (Save the Children, ). Different studies (Freidus, ; Ismayilova and others, ; Muguwe and others, ; Walakira and others, ) have shown children returned to impoverished families suffer social isolation, stigmatisation and maltreatment. A study in Sri Lanka where children reunified with economically disempowered families experienced competition and rivalry among siblings for limited food and resources, leading to antagonism towards the reunified children (De Silva and Punchihewa, ).…”