CHILD PROTECTION

Kenya Programme 2016-2018

About UsSave the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current Save the Children programming in Kenya focuses on Health, Nutrition and WASH, Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Education and Child Poverty.

In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In February 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children has an operational presence in Bungoma, Busia, Garissa (Dadaab Refugee Camp), Mandera, Nairobi, Turkana and Wajir counties and works through partners in many other parts of the country.

Our Theory of Change

Our approach to programming is driven by our Theory of Change. Being the voice: We advocate and campaign for better practices and policies to fulfil children’s rights and ensure

that children’s voices are heard (particularly those of children most marginalized or living in poverty. Being the innovator: We develop and prove evidence based, replicable breakthrough solutions to problems facing children.Achieving results at scale: We support effective implementation of best practices , policies and programmes for children, leveraging on our knowledge to ensure sustainable impact.Building partnerships: We collaborate with children, civil society organizations, communities, governments and the private sector to share knowledge, influence others and build capacity to ensure that children’s rights are met.

THEORY OF CHANGE:how we work to create impact for children

We will…

… build partnerships

… be the voice

… be the innovator

… achieve results at scale

Our sub thematic prioritiesOur Child Protection work in Kenya

Our Child Protection interventions focus on three thematic areas:

Appropriate careWe intend to maintain but also scale up this subtheme to include a focus on national care reform for children without appropriate care. The following are our proposed actions : • Support and lobby for implementation of Guidelines

for Alternative Family Care of Children in Kenya• Alternative care in emergencies– Continue with

family based care for children at risk of serious protection concerns

• Design policy briefs to support and inform interventions for children without appropriate care

• Inclusion of family strengthening to CP programming which includes positive parenting, child sensitive social protection and work with men as responsible fathers.

• Advocacy for care reform within the country-strategic partnerships to target government and national stakeholders participation

Protection of children from violence, including sexual violence, and violence in conflict situations.We intend to invest and test innovative approaches to protect and prevent violence against children, while maintaining implementation of the refugee program. Our proposed actions include:• Support the national roll out of the positive discipline

guidelines to schools in Kenya. • Use the learning from CBCPM research to design

projects that demonstrate the importance of community based mechanisms to address various child rights violations in communities.  

• Invest and test integrated projects approach that incorporate innovative interventions to CP e.g Essential Package

• Incorporate ICT to improve case management in the refugee program to improve analysis of information for better programming and ensure children access timely interventions.

• Alternative family based care continues to safeguard children without appropriate care in conflict situations.

Child Protection is a key component of Save the Children’s work in Kenya and we strive to ensure that every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. We are working to protect children from violence and to support recovery when these violations occur. Our programs focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable children in Kenya, while aiming for safety and well-being of all children.

Working with the Kenyan government local partners and communities, we strive to create lasting change with improvements in policies and services that protect children.

We are focusing our efforts on helping the most vulnerable children in the country through the following approaches:• Increasing safety for children in emergencies

through building the capacity of community based structures in identifying, reporting and responding to abuse.   

• Strengthening child protection systems through collaboration with the relevant government sector to benefit most vulnerable children across the country.

• Building partnerships, which support implementation of interventions for children deprived of parental care. 

• Nurture learning initiatives that contribute to advocacy for action as well as local and global attention to issues affecting children.

We will work to achieve the rights of all children, ensuring:• No child dies from preventable causes

before their fifth birthday• All children learn from a quality basic

education• Violence against children is no longer

tolerated We will focus on the most deprived and marginalized children

We will specifically target children living in the following contexts:• Arid and Semi-Arid Land areas (ASALs)• Refugee and IDP settings• Urban informal settlements

In the period 2016 – 2018, Save the Children will focus on ensuring that all children, including those on the move and in emergencies, have appropriate care either from their own families or community-based alternatives; that children are protected from Physical and Humiliating Punishment (PHP) at home and in school and that all children are protected through a strong national Child Protection System, integrating formal and informal components.

Child protection systems strengthening:We intend to be the leaders in systems strengthening for child protection through investing in strategic partnerships to strengthen the delivery of child protection interventions within formal and informal processes. • Support and lobby for implementation of existing

legislation through appropriate policies, guidelines and actions.

• Promote case management guidelines and child friendly reporting mechanisms as integral component of quality service provision.

• Community CP strengthening – focus on strengthening pathways between formal and informal systems

• Advocacy for strengthening the social workforce through the Kenya National Association of social work (KNASW)

Our current strategy: 2016-2018

What is our global breakthrough? • By 2030, violence against children is no longer tolerated

What do we want to achieve in Kenya by 2030?• We will work with the Department of Children Services (DCS), the National Council for Children Services

(NCCS) and other child protection stakeholders to strengthen child protection systems that will benefit all children in Kenya

What is our target for 2016-2017?• In Collaboration with government stakeholders (DSC, NCCS, MoT) we commit to strengthen response to child

protection concerns through: • Supporting the launch and roll out of positive discipline guidelines to enable achievement of the total ban on

corporal punishment

• Support the roll out and implementation of the Guidelines for Alternative Family Care of Children in Kenya

• Continue to implement alternative family based care for children in emergencies who are at risk of separation

• Incorporate ICT to improve case management in the refugee program to ensure children access timely interventions and also improve analysis of information for better programming

• Support and lobby for implementation of existing legislation through appropriate policies, guidelines and actions.

• Promote case management guidelines and child friendly reporting mechanisms as integral component of quality service provision.

• Community CP strengthening – focus on strengthening pathways between formal and informal systems

Our programmes in Kenya

Building partnerships to promote safe and violence free family environments for childrenSave the Children in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE), and various civil society stakeholders is committed to working towards elimination of physical and humiliating punishment in schools. Through development and roll out of Positive Discipline: Handbook for Teachers, it is hoped that enforcing the total ban on corporal punishment will eventually be a reality in Kenya, benefitting many boys and girls in schools.

Children learn to ‘speak out’ and stay safeThrough a partnership with Childline Kenya (CLK) • We are providing support to strengthening the

National Helpline 116, to make it more accessible to children and communities in need of protection

• We have contributed to documentation of Case Management Guidelines to strengthen coordination of child protection services at county and community levels.

• We are providing avenues for confidential and anonymous reporting of child abuse incidents-Speak out Box Initiative.

• We are providing child protection services in 2 sub counties targeting children at risk of separation from families and those in alternative care to be in safe family environment.

• We are reaching 500 adults parents and caregivers (including foster parents, kinship care givers and guardians) with family strengthening initiatives that include parenting training and linkages to economic strengthening initiatives to prevent unnecessary separation.

• We are involving community members with training and sensitization to demystify adoption and foster care in efforts to keep children in families. 

The Essential PackageWe are promoting the Essential Package of Care for vulnerable children to address the needs of young vulnerable children and their caregivers. The Essential Package (EP) is a framework for action to holistically address the needs of young children (prenatal to 8 years old) and their caregivers in highly vulnerable circumstances. • We have identified and trained a pool of National

Actors from both government and civil society to become EP champions.

• We have translated the EP into Kiswahili and harmonized the key information, messages and visual guides to fit into the national context and policies governing all the services referred to.

• We have provided training to a pool of organizations and implementers who will become instrumental in reaching out to vulnerable communities who have large numbers of young children, with limited access to caregiving practices that enable children to reach their full developmental potential.

Doris* and her younger sister have been living under the care of her uncle and his family as her parents were always away; both of them working far from home. Her uncle took advantage of Doris and abused her sexually, while her aunt had gone to a funeral for some days. Her teacher noted the girl being withdrawn and as she couldn’t talk asked her to use the Speak out Box installed in her school if she needed help.

The Speak out Box initiative is a partnership of CLK and Save the Children in collaboration with schools and communities to enable children report risks and abuse confidentially. After a while Doris used this avenue and her problem was immediately reported to the Children’s Officer who took over the issue and got medical attention for Doris. Her uncle has been prosecuted and the case is on-going. The children’s office is also working with Doris parents and family to ensure the children are kept safe.

* The name has been changed, to preserve confidentiality.

Kinship care Research We have supported child participation in research by documenting real life experiences of children in informal alternative care (kinship care). The study provided learning on the immense value placed upon kinship care by the children, care givers and the community at large. Save the Children expects that this research will inform:

• Implementation of the Guidelines for Alternative Family Care of Children in Kenya: The Government involvement in monitoring and linking these families to support services critical in addressing issues and challenges identified.

• The ongoing legal review of The Children’s Act to ensure kinship care is referenced as the most important form of care for children deprived of parents.

• Increased attention to the rights of children without appropriate care in access to basic services.

• Lobbying for social protection initiatives to be more responsive to children without appropriate care.

Learning initiatives that contribute to advocacy and lobby for issues affecting childrenInteragency Learning Initiative on Community Based Child protection. Save the Children, through technical input from Colombia Group for Children in Adversity, is conducting an ethnographic research in Kilifi whose aim is to bring out evidence of the strength of community-based child protection mechanisms (CBCPMs) as fundamental elements of child protection systems.  The research involved intensive community based dialogues to identify interventions for prioritized harms affecting children in two villages in Kilifi. It is conducted in close collaboration with DCS and community leaders

Child Protection in DadaabWe are keeping the most vulnerable children in Dadaab refugee camp protected from harm through: • Provision of protective services using the case

management approach• Working with partners and community based

structures in implementation of interventions to keep children safe

• We offer psychosocial support interventions to reduce negative impact on children’s emotional wellbeing.

• For children deprived of parental care (unaccompanied or separated from families ), we work with the community and the government children officer, to place the children in foster families so they can be cared for in a safe family environment.

• Positive discipline and modeling good behavior are some of the successful training packages provided to families in this context .

These approaches enables Save the Children to improve access to child protection services for children who have experienced abuse or are at risk of any violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Behaviour Modeling and Parenting In DadaabPositive Discipline as an intervention is embedded in the broader child protection program to address physical and humiliating punishment in families. The key focus of this program is to: • Foster problem-solving in the family in non-violent

ways. • Foster understanding of how punishment effects

immediate compliance, hence limiting moral internalization of behavior; leading to antisocial-behaviors.

Anfa is a 16 year old girl who was separated from her family within Somalia due to civil war in 2009. She has been living in Dadaab till 2015; but recently was reunited with her sister in Kakuma refugee camp. The civil conflict erupted when she was in school, and at 10 years old she was at serious risk due to her being alone. She joined fleeing families and finally settled in Hagadera camp within Dadaab. Through the involvement of community structures, Anfa was referred to Save the Children who identified a foster parent to care and protect her while in the camp. She was enrolled in a school in the camp and continued with her education. In July 2015, she learnt through a neighbour who had visited a relative in Kakuma refugee camp that her sister had sought refuge there and was now married with children. Having been separated from her sister for 6 years, Anfa’s hopes of seeing and reuniting with one of her family members was renewed. Through an interagency effort, and a Best Interest Determination process, Anfa’s communication with her sister was established, and she was eventually united with her in Kakuma refugee camp. Her parents whereabouts still remain unknown.

Children’s Radio ProgramsWe are supporting child led radio programs which are used to reach out to the children and community members. • We developed a partnership with local radio stations

that allow children into their studios for live shows as well as broadcast of recorded messages to the entire Dadaab region.

• The programs are fun and engaging for the children as they contain songs, poems and riddles done by the children for the children.

• SC uses this channel to disseminate messages to enhance safety for children in communities. Families are informed of various risks for children in the context and information on where to seek help is disseminated

• A tour of the camp during broadcast days will often come across children and parents huddled together as they listen to the messages over the radio.

Girl mothersWe have been working with girl mothers; mostly between 13-18 years old to provide interventions necessary for their survival. • Monthly psychosocial and peer support meetings are held to address challenges that the girls face as underage

mothers. • We have provided them with vocational training such as dress making and basket weaving to enable them

acquire skills to earn a livelihood• The psychosocial support groups have eventually included table banking ventures to help each other start and

sustain businesses.

Foster parentsUp to 30% of children arriving in Dadaab refugee camp are either unaccompanied, have experienced abuse, are at risk of gender based violence, neglect exploitation, and most of all those at Save the Children started the foster parent initiative to link separated and unaccompanied children with foster parents so that they are able to enjoy a family based care; important for all children. Through training and livelihood support to the foster parents, Save the Children has enabled children to stay safe within family care

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