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Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented human and health crisis and has been affecting lives in many forms. What seemed to be a health crisis eventually became a major ongoing global economic crisis. Sector-wide disruptions are threatening both short- and long-term livelihoods and well-being of millions of youth around the globe, especially youth from vulnerable communities. Business closures threatened the operations and soundness of the enterprises resulting in layoffs and wage losses, affecting a major chunk of youth including the young care leavers of alternative care programmes in Asia. This called for customised interventions and support for such young care leavers. Immediate actions were needed for managing their mental health, for maintaining education continuity and for reskilling of such young care leavers to prepare them to cope with the pandemic. This article is based on the learning and experiences of SOS Children’s Villages responses to supporting nearly 1,500 care leavers in various Asian countries. SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring quality care and protection of children and youth through its various alternative care programmes in 15 countries in Asia region. SOS Children’s villages responded to COVID-19 pandemic by supporting youth and care leavers in SOS family-like care. Primarily, these countries reported that the school closures mandated to combat the spread of the virus affected the education and learning of all the children and youth in their care. All projects in Asia started reaching out to the care leavers and started extending a wide range of support to them with both short- and long-term interventions. This article covers SOS Children’s Villages youth programmes, especially from 11 countries of Asia region—Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Highlights
Background and ContextPrior to the outbreak of the pandemic, the world was already struggling with a learning crisis, with 53% children in low- and middle-income countries living in learning poverty, which means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 (World Bank report, 2020)
The prevention of this virus called for maintaining social distance; this led to emotional challenges faced by care leavers who are living in isolation without family and friends
Many youths of alternative care programmes will be facing unprecedented challenges when they enter into independent living in the coming years
Summary
Background and ContextPrior to the outbreak of the pandemic, the world was already struggling with a learning crisis, with 53% children in low- and middle-income countries living in learning poverty, which means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 (World Bank report, 2020). Alternative care, care leavers, youth, COVID-19 response, leaving care, independent living This means, the current scenario might just be the beginning; there is urgent need to prepare the young care leavers of alternative care programmes for facing these challenges more efficiently and independently. The impact of COVID-19 on education and economy has certainly put youth and care leavers at risk.
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