Kinship care in a refugee camp – the voices of kinship carers

In this video you will hear from kinship carers who live in Hitsats refugee camp in the district of Shire, in Northern Ethiopia. They tell us why they are happy to be offering kinship care.

There are many children around the world who are in safe and caring kinship placements. However, there have also been documented protection concerns for some children in kinship care. This means a national child protection system should have the capacity to monitor all children who may be vulnerable.

The UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children describe kinship care as ’family-based care within the child’s extended family or with close friends of the family known to the child, whether formal or informal in nature’.

The Guidelines also advise:

‘Recognizing that, in most countries, the majority of children without parental care are looked after informally by relatives or others, States should seek to devise appropriate means, consistent with the present Guidelines, to ensure their welfare and protection while in such informal care arrangements, with due respect for cultural, economic, gender and religious differences and practices that do not conflict with the rights and best interests of the child.’

‘With regard to informal care arrangements for the child, whether within the extended family, with friends or with other parties, States should, where appropriate, encourage such carers to notify the competent authorities accordingly so that they and the child may receive any necessary financial and other support that would promote the child’s welfare and protection. Where possible and appropriate, States should encourage and enable informal caregivers, with the consent of the child and parents concerned, to formalize the care arrangement after a suitable lapse of time, to the extent that the arrangement has proved to be in the best interests of the child to date and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.’

As the family reunification and placement of children in kinship care in the Hitsats camp is being organised by an officially appointed organisation – in this case the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) – this is formally arranged kinship care.

You have previously seen some of these kinship carers in course step 4.15. They were attending a training session provided by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

We have the opportunity to hear more about the kinship programme in Hitsats camp in the next course step.