Over 400,000 children each year are unable to live with their families as a result of the trauma of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and abandonment. According to the World Health Organisation, 12% of children were physically abused in the past year (2019). Over 60 million primary-school-aged children attend classes hungry and 23 million of these children are from Africa.
According to UIS, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest out-of-school rates (UIS, 2019). While school enrolment has been rising, one in five children of primary school age are out of school, rising to almost one-third of lower-secondary-age children, and over half of upper-secondary age. Across the three age levels, there are 7.5 million more girls out of school than boys, with the gender gap becoming progressively wider at each stage (UIS, 2018). Even without taking into consideration the quality of the education received by children who are in school, the out-of-school numbers indicate that sub-Saharan Africa has been left far behind in progress towards the SDG goal of universal secondary learning. Some of the risk factors contributing to these statistics include Low income, poor parenting practices, family disfunction and separation, reduced opportunities for learning, poverty, high population density, etc. (WHO).
The needs of these children surpass the capacity of public funding, and this is where the ACTDF steps in. We identify, access, and harness resources from multiple sources to enable children who have been victims of trauma, abuse, poverty, neglect, or abandonment to lead healthy, expressive, and productive lives. To this effect, we provide support for foster care, adoption, residential treatment, mental health, and community-based programs of the highest quality to the children.