https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/youth-mental-health-during-covid-19
just to inform people who might be interested with.

Dear all
i would be very interested to hear how other contexts are supporting child protection within the health sector actions. If anyone has experiences or tools for training, tips, guidance, etc., these would also be appreciated.
In situations where access for protection is severely restricted, health actors are still able to access so this conversation would be a useful one for us!
thank you
krissie 

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Thanks Koen. Is it unavoidable that quarantines produce such negative effects or are there ways to avoid those in the first place while they last?

Thanks Lucie for sharing!

It is expected that a prolonged lockdown period has a substantial impact on child development, especially in middle childhood and adolescence. Socal development, in which peers play a fundamental role, is somehow disrupted. The consequences will only be visible in the middle and long term. For educators and caregivers, it is hard to balance physical protection with the hard impact of child development consequences. Consider facilitating peer contacts as soon as it is reasonably safe among other things.

Hi all,
The technical note on child helplines is out! 
As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, child protection actors and service providers are exploring how they can continue to provide support to children, families and communities remotely through the use of technology. This includes child helplines, which, over the last decade, have become increasingly important in responding to concerns raised by children and young people on a range of issues affecting their lives. 
The note which was developed jointly by Child Helplines international, the CP AoR, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and UNICEF is aimed at practitioners and has two main objectives:

1. To provide practical advice to child protection actors and service providers – including government departments, (I)NGOs, civil society organisations (CSO), community-based organisations (CBO), UN agencies and child protection coordination groups – on how to support children and families through a child helpline service, including collaboration with existing, national child helplines to avoid duplication.
2. To explore how existing child helplines can contribute to, and participate in, efforts to support children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic through child protection mechanisms and systems. This includes expanding their services.

 

**CHANGE OF DATE**
Good morning everyone!
On Thursday 4th June at 2pm CEST, Child Helplines International (CHI), the Alliance for CP in humanitarian action, the CP AoR and UNICEF are co-hosting a webinar with a Q&A session to present the new technical note on child helplines in the context of the COVID19 response. The note will be issued in the coming days and aims at:

1. Providing practical guidance to child protection actors and service providers, including government departments, (I)NGOs, CSOs and UN agencies and child protection coordination groups on how they might provide support to children and families through a helpline service; or by collaboration with an existing national child helpline;
2. Exploring how existing child helplines  can contribute to, and participate in, efforts to support children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, through child protection mechanisms and systems.  This includes expanding their services, and with a view to avoiding duplication. 

You can register and find more information here. We look forward to your participation, questions and sharing of experiences!
best regards,
Chantal

Dear Désirée ETOBE,

 

Thank you so much for your post and I am sorry to respond in English! Especially I want to thank you for sharing the inspiring information about strong collaborative CP and GBV activities.  It is encouraging to hear that case workers are trained to respond to both CP and GBV cases, and that Health and PSS are included too. Do you encourage/offer joint training opportunities for case workers to continue building these skills? I would also be interested to know if you have developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or other type of agreement governing the activities and collaborative process?

 

COVID-19 is highlighting the need for maximizing both CP and GBV actors’ capacity to respond to both sets of cases, and we are scrambling to increase the efforts in building these skills. I would however suggest that you already have a head-start in that the actors already have some experience in working closely together.

 

I am attaching a link to the Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative (CASI) COVID-19 Guidance Note. CASI is also developing a specific TIP sheet for the coordination aspects.   

Later in the year CASI is planning to offer an online training/workshop on coordination of case management for CP and GBV coordinators, which you might be interested in attending to share your experiences and learn from others.

 

Meanwhile, CASI is working on a participatory approach for CP and GBV actors to better understand and address the barriers that adolescent survivors of sexual violence face when seeking services. From our experience, this is an important area for CP and GBV actors, including Health and PSS to work together on with young people.  

 

I would be very grateful if we could stay in contact, and continue sharing experiences.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Carina

 

Hi Lauren,
Thank you for sharing the resources, that's quite a bulk topic. I am actually very excited and I believe the guidelines will be a great help. 

Hi All, 

The Alliance is happy to share a new Annex to the Technical Note: Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This Annex focuses on Working with Communities to Keep Children Safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Read more about the new annex and download here.   A webinar on the same topic has been scheduled for tomorrow, 20th May at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CET.  Register here.  

Description of the Annex below:

Infectious diseases like COVID-19 can disrupt the protective environments in which children grow and develop. Disruptions to families, friendships, daily routines and the wider community can have negative consequences for children’s well-being, development and protection. COVID-19 also has a direct impact on the ability of child protection actors to engage with communities, as well as on the ability of communities to self-protect and support each other. Learning from past infectious disease outbreaks has demonstrated that community members act to protect children from the onset of the crisis, and are best placed to identify both child protection and COVID-19 related risks and respond effectively and appropriately.  

This guidance aims at supporting child protection actors working with communities to keep children safe to adapt their programming to the contagious environment of COVID-19. It builds upon Standard 17 in the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and includes key actions and hyperlinks to additional resources, links and tips aimed at:  

1. Understanding how communities organize themselves to protect children in times of COVID-19
2. Working with communities to implement safe and effective ways to protect children in times of COVID-19
3. The health, safety and wellbeing of community members.  

We hope you can participate in the webinar tomorrow; otherwise, a recording of the webinar will be uploaded here.  

Warmest regards, 
Sara & Lauren

Hi Paul, 

It would certainly be an interesting exchange. I am however not the organizer of the webinar. You would need to get in touch with them directly: AfriChild: The Center for the Study of the African Child and the Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network

Let me knkow if you experience any difficulties

Thank you

Elena

Hello Tina, 

Great to hear from you.  I invite you to review adapted case management guideline examples from Lebanon, Iraq, Somalia, Myanmar, and Albania in this folder, where many countries have planned on delivering services either in-person or by phone according to vulnerability criteria and risk levels determined in country (and, of course, in line with safety protocols as agreed upon with health colleagues and national authorities).   

As this is quite a large and nuanced topic, I invite colleagues from the global Case Management Task Force and countries that have adapted their case management services and SOPs to share their experiences as well.  Additionally, GBV colleagues have developed helpful guidance notes as well, including the recent "Not just hotlines and mobile phones: GBV Service provision during COVID-19" note, which highlights a few ideas related to the issue of reaching survivors who cannot easily access phone-based GBV support.

Additionally, further guidance on Adapted Child Protection Case Management is coming out from the Alliance for CPHA this week, so we hope to share that soon.   

Warmly, 
Lauren

To ensure effective and efficient response during the pandemic, local NGO through coordinated approach with community base volunteers, Child protection committee, clubs and Associations serve as the first responder to provide Child protection services with full support of community leaders. Therefore equipping the local NGO with international best practice should be the priority  area of both UN and international organizations. GSF adopted this process where we use our trained CPC for identification and referral to basic services and recruited community base case workers and PSS facilitators to provide integrated case management support and PSS with a remote supervision from the child protection officer using phone call where there are full lockdown and community visit ones in a week.

Yusuf, Grow Strong Foundation 

Nigeria