Empowering global action by care-leavers for care-leavers

For the past year, CJP has been supporting ACNA – the Association for Care-leavers Networks in Africa.  The team at ACNA had identified an important priority.  They were hearing from many care-leavers across Africa about their repeated and continuous experience of sexual violence and sexual exploitation.  Yet it appeared to be a hidden truth. 

ACNA wanted to research the situation and share the findings – in a way that felt safe for care-leavers to participate.  The ACNA team told us that, too often, they are the subjects of research and are asked to ‘tell their stories’ – but often they feel exploited and abused and wished they had never participated in the research in the first place.

CJP aims to empower young care-leavers, by helping them develop the skills they need to lead global advocacy around care systems and the rights and needs of care-leavers.  So we trained the ACNA team in research methods.  They designed the research and we reviewed the methodology.  They wrote most of the report – and we helped them ensure accuracy, clarity and a robust interpretation of data. The result is a powerful report that exposes the scale of sexual abuse and exploitation to which care-leavers around the world are subjected.  Through quantitative data and compelling testimonies, it explores the root causes of that abuse – and calls for action to end it.

On 6 November, ACNA’s Director, Ruth Wacuka, launched the report at One Young World’s global summit in Munich.

At CJP, we are proud to partner with ACNA and One Young World on this vital initiative – and we congratulate ACNA on their extraordinary achievement. Read the report here.