Social groupwork for promoting psychological well-being of adolescents enrolled in sponsorship programs

Background: The dearth of data on adolescents highlighted in the UN’s data disaggregation against the agenda ‘no one left behind’ calls for research on ‘the second decade’. Moreover, India is a country with the world’s largest adolescent population, and as such, studies and policies for developing competencies of adolescents are crucial to the country’s development; interventions instilling confidence to aspire to a better future in underprivileged adolescents are vital to mitigate inequity. Methods: This intervention study adopted a quasi-experimental design to measure the effectiveness of social groupwork in raising the psychological well-being of adolescents in child sponsorship programs in Kerala. Forty adolescents from a Child Sponsorship Program (CSP) center in Kochi were recruited for the study. Those suggested by the CSP center considering their poor academic performance and behavior problems were allocated to the intervention group and the rest to the comparison group. The intervention was designed in response to the information garnered through a preliminary study and administered to the intervention group (n=20). We conducted pre-test and post-test for both the intervention group and comparison group (n=20). Results: Comparison between pre- and post-measurements carried out using paired sample t-test for the intervention group and comparison group separately gave a p-value of <0.05 for the intervention group and >0.05 for the comparison group. Thus, it was proved that psychological well-being of participants in the intervention group was raised significantly due to the social group work intervention. Conclusions: Applying refined granularity, this research adds data specifically on adolescents enrolled in child sponsorship programs and sets a blueprint for social groupwork to improve their psychological well-being. Proposing a conceptual framework for child sponsorship programs, this study recommends further research in all aspects of its functioning, and interventions at group, family, and community levels, for the well-being and empowerment of marginalized adolescents.

إشكالية انتهاء كفالة الطفل في قانون الأسرة والقضاء الجزائري

in English: In the article 46, the Algerian Family Code stipulates the following: "Adoption is prohibited by both the Sharia and Law". Therefore, it is clearly understood that the interdiction of adoption doesn’t contradict the Islamic law (Sharia). But due - on one hand - to the confusion in Algerian society with regard to the conception of adoption with all its consequences, and on the other hand the difficult situation of many abandoned children and the suffering of many families who are not blessed with the fertility or the capacity of reproduction, the Algerian legislature has been forced to find solutions to such difficult cases. Therefore, a child support legislation (guardianship or sponsorship) has been established under the following Articles 116 and 125 of the Family Code. The study was based on the Algerian laws on the issue of the termination of child sponsorship and applied by the Algerian judiciary. The problem of the study is to know the cases of termination of child sponsorship in the Algerian family law, and the position of the Algerian judiciary on this issue. This study aims to mention the cases in which the sponsorship of the child ends in the Algerian family law, and to discuss some of the Algerian judicial decisions issued by the Supreme Court, related to the subject of the study in question. The study relied on the analytical method, in order to analyze legal texts and discuss judicial decisions. The study concluded that the Algerian family law stipulated some cases in which the sponsorship of the child ends, and neglected to mention other cases. Abstract in Arabic: لقد نص المشرع الجزائري في المادة 46 من قانون الأسرة على ما يلي: "يمنع التبني شرعا وقانونا".يتضح من تحليل هذه المادة أن المشرع منع الآخذ بنظام التبني تماشياً مع أحكام الشريعة الإسلامية. لكنه، ونظرا للمشاكل المترتبة على قضية التبني في المجتمع الجزائري من أخذ وردو كذلك بالنسبة للوضعية الصعبة لبعض الأطفال المهملين، وكذا معاناة بعض الأسر التي لا تنعم بالإنجاب، التجأ المشرع الجزائري إلى حل يتجلى في الكفالة، فنظم أحكامها في المواد من 116 إلى 125 من قانون الأسرة. استندت الدراسة إلى القوانين الجزائرية الخاصة بموضوع انتهاء كفالة الطفل والمطبقة من طرف القضاء الجزائري. تتمثل إشكالية الدراسة في معرفة حالات انتهاء كفالة الطفل في قانون الأسرة الجزائري، وموقف القضاء الجزائري من هذه المسألة. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى ذكر الحالات التي تنتهي بها كفالة الطفل في قانون الأسرة الجزائري،ومناقشة بعض القرارات القضائية الجزائرية الصادرة عن المحكمة العليا،والمتعلقة بموضوع الدراسة محل البحث. لقد اعتمدت الدراسة على المنهج التحليلي، وذلك من أجل تحليل النصوص القانونية ومناقشة القرارات القضائية. لقد توصلت الدراسة إلى أن قانون الأسرة الجزائري نص على بعض الحالات التي تنتهي بها كفالة الطفل،وأغفل عن ذكر الحالات الأخرى

Adopting Revolution: The Chinese Communist Revolution and the Politics of Global Humanitarianism

During the tumultuous period surrounding the Chinese Communist revolution of 1949, Chinese children wrote thousands of letters to foreign “foster parents” as part of a humanitarian fundraising program called the “adoption plan” for international child sponsorship. Under the adoption plan, private citizens around the world “adopted” Chinese children by funding their lives at orphanages in China while building personal relationships through the exchange of photographs, gifts, and translated letters. This article uses the case study of the Foster Parents Plan for War Children China Branch to examine how Chinese child welfare workers mobilized the sentimental ties between children and foster parents to secure international support for the revolution. Based on 490 extant letters sent by Chinese children to their foreign foster parents, it analyzes how the adoption plan became a centerpiece of efforts to transform inherited humanitarian practices to meet the new ideological and material needs of the Chinese Communist revolution.