Empowering communities and families to protect children

Enabling everyone to play their part in protecting vulnerable children 

Protecting children inside and outside their home, on public transport, on the streets, means everyone plays their part. It’s called contextual safeguarding. Through partnerships with parents, teachers, local authorities, passengers, public and the transport community we build communities committed to protecting children and young. Parenting workshops, awareness raising, skills training and confidence building help everyone spot and support vulnerable children, so more children have a chance of a brighter future. 

Changing attitudes to keep children safe

Harmful behaviours and attitudes toward children often occur because they’re considered the norm amongst communities. Vulnerable children struggling to survive on the streets are seen as nuisances or simply not noticed. That’s why changing attitudes and behaviour runs through our work. Awareness activities, engaging and speaking to community members, parenting workshops and counselling, activating children’s groups so children share their concerns and voices, so that they understand what’s not acceptable and how to challenge it are some of the ways we bring about change.

Better equipping parents to take care of their children

It takes a village to raise a child (and a community to protect it!). We believe that communities have the capacity to find solutions to protect their children. That is why we work closely with key community members to raise awareness on child rights issues, mobilize community responses and actions to enhance children’s safety, and to ensure communities participate in creating a protective environment for children. Our integrated approach to child protection has been built on field experience research and in-depth vulnerability assessments conducted across communities.

Responding to children in a crisis

It is during a crisis that childhoods are the first casualty. The relentless trend of complex and protracted crises pose grave risks to children’s well-being and development. Unprecedented child protection needs arose from the COVID 19 pandemic, and we worked round the clock to ensure that the most vulnerable children were reached and their immediate needs were met. 

From providing relief distribution of groceries and nutritional kits, psychosocial support and mental health services, educational and learning material, children and their families were reached out to and protected to ensure that children do not drop out of school, get pushed into work or get trafficked or even get married early.

Family Strengthening

Parents and families form the first circle of protection for children. Strengthening the capacity of families to reinforce a safety net that provides care, protection and nurturing for their children is a pivotal step towards preventing children from taking to a street life, and separation from parental care. 

Investing in families delivers a dividend that is not easily measured in economic terms but has outcomes that can change the landscape of children protection. RCI’s model for family strengthening is all encompassing, designed to ensure that every family is resilient to protect their children.

• Preventing Separation: Building the capacity and skills of families to prevent separation of children from their family. This includes making available a range of support systems for the family to get support by providing full access to basic services and schemes, especially healthcare, vocational training, education and social protection, and parenting workshops, counselling and sensitization on child rights and protection. 
• Family Reintegration: Promoting sustainable reintegration of children into their families. We follow a systematic family reintegration process for children reached, rescued and restored at transport hubs. The process includes facilitating appropriate contact with parents/family members, assessment, follow up, and family visits.
• Parents as role models in the community: Our programme provides support to parents and seeks to change family behaviours and environments to encourage healthy child development. This includes ensuring equal access to health, nutrition, education and livelihood opportunities, in addition to psychosocial help, and measuring the changes in family dynamics during the programme intervention.