Children without appropriate care:

Protecting Children in Emergencies

R. Bérenger BEREHOUDOUGOURegional Disaster Risk Management Manager Plan West AfricaAddis Ababa,CSO Forum 18/03/2010

• Children most vulnerable and affected group• Emergence of new protection risks• Exacerbation of existing protection risks• long term impact on children’s lives through post traumatic stress, education loss, disability, separation from/loss of family

Impact of Emergencies on Children

and their Protection

•Abuse: sexual, physical, psychological; multiple forms of gender based violence

•Exploitation and slavery, including forced recruitment, prostitution and marriage

•Neglect: separation from parents, abandonment, withdrawal of care, inappropriate detention and institutionalization

•Psychological distress through witnessing and experiencing disaster and its impact

•Physical harm

Main protection risks

• Prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children in emergencies

• includes psychosocial support: addressing emotional need and responding to psychosocial fallout is crucial for children and care givers to regain dignity, confidence, trust

• puts particularly vulnerable children first: unaccompanied children, children with limited mobility, children with disability

Child Protection in Emergencies –

Plan’s Definition

Meeting children’s protection rights and

needs in disaster• a cross cutting approach: mainstreaming protection in all possible domains of intervention – from child safe Water & Sanitation facilities to realizing civil rights through birth registration

• cross cutting in situation assessments and response

•Strengthening the capacity of local actors to establish and rebuild protection systems that might have been affected

• including protection in monitoring and evaluation

• ensuring children’s protection from aid workers through efficient policies and reinforcement mechanisms

Psychologists: identify most affected children; ease the psychological suffering of children and their caregivers and re-build perspectives for life; provide advice to social and aid workers. Mobile Psycho-Social Work

Social Workers: support to child-to-child activities, identification and census of most vulnerable children and households, counselling and monitoring.

Security forces: security, violence ,peace keepingAdministration: involvement of camp management

committees in child protection committees & activities, birth registration, schooling…

Youth and children organizations: child to child and peer support work listening points, recreational activities, young reporters activities, birth registration process, awareness raising about child rights(…),

Health workers: medical support, identification of victims of sexual abuse, rape, referral to psychologists

NGO community: protection and health activities: zoning, coordination of meetings, reports, roles and responsibilities

Everyone has a role to play:

M

Monitoring

• daily monitoring in camp situations

• supervision of listening points

• confidential reports to authorities in charge of child protection where indicated

• supervision of psychologists, social workers

• every child one file

• supervision of adherence to child protection policy

• coordination meetings with other clusters

Thank you!