Child Protection

Child protection lies at the heart of everything Help a Child does. Across the globe, millions of children live under the shadow of violence, exploitation, and neglect. In conflict zones, they face unimaginable dangers and the need for child protection is immense.

The impact is devastating and long-lasting. When a child’s safety is compromised, their ability to learn, grow, and contribute to society is fundamentally undermined. Their dreams become distant possibilities rather than achievable goals.

Child Protection is about prevention and response: how can harm be avoided and what needs to be done by whom in case harm does occur? Protecting children is important in areas of conflict, of course, but also in other areas, where, for instance, poverty is causing a lot of problems. In all the programmes of Help a Child and its partners, Child Protection plays an important role and every project we undertake integrates Child Protection measures.

There are different ways it needs to be done, different layers, and different groups of people responsible for protection:

✓ Children themselves: what can they do to protect themselves?
✓ Parents/family: as primary caretakers they are primarily responsible;
✓ Community: think about the school, the neighbourhood, the church, what can they do?
✓ Society & norms: what kind of policies, procedures, and laws are there? Think about the police, community services, health, but also the legal system.

Help a Child focuses mainly on the first three mentioned. Where possible, we do try to influence national government systems.

Core interventions:

• Establishment and strengthening of Child Protection Committees and Child Rights clubs;
• Train community leaders to recognize and respond to signs of abuse;
• Strengthen child protection systems in the world’s most dangerous places;
• Provide Safe Spaces where children can learn and play without threat;
• Development and implementation of Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support programs for (young) children and their caregivers;
• Facilitation of parenting training and community dialogues to bring adults together around several child protection topics;
• Support families in crisis to prevent harmful coping mechanisms.