Safety Nets for Child Protection

Safety Nets for Child Protection

 

Safety Nets for Child Protection

© UNICEF Swaziland 2007

Children in childheaded households are vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Young people in Swaziland are not only bearing the brunt of HIV/AIDS and abject poverty but they are also vulnerable to all forms of exploitation. Child sexual abuse remains rampant in the country, with continuing reports of people closest to children (relatives, teachers) as the main perpetrators. Investigations show that most abuse cases occur in schools, homes and community settings. Head teachers account for most of the cases reported, with teachers following closely. Abuse by fathers is also comparatively high.

With the growing number of orphaned and vulnerable children, and the rising cases of child abuse, it was imperative that Government and development partners step in to reverse this alarming trend. Once they became involved, Government and partners worked to initiate a range of strategic activities to fight against sexual abuse and to empower young people with knowledge to reduce the risk of contracting HIV. 

ACTION
UNICEF’s Safety Nets for Child Protection programme focuses on creating a safe and protected environment for children and families that reduces vulnerability to violence, exploitation and abuse, and child labour.

The “Safety Nets” programme supports decentralised and community-driven approaches that seek to: 1) Enhance local government capacity to address unmet rights of children. 2) Strengthen sector and civil society capacities for a scaled-up national response to child rights, based on proven solutions originating at the community level. The programme also emphasizes development of policies and guidelines to sustain such initiatives.

National Child Protection Project
UNICEF is assisting Government to:
• promote legal and policy reform needed for incorporation of child justice;
• draft a Domestic Violence Bill for adoption by Parliament;
• extend birth and child registration to cover all chiefdoms;
• implement the 2006-2010 National Plan of Action for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children .

Community capacity development for Child Rights.
• Neighbourhood Care Points – UNICEF is responding to the collapse of social support systems by supporting the establishment of Neighbourhood Care Points (NCPs) in the communities. NCPs are places in the community where children gather daily for a hot meal, participate in non-formal learning and recreational activities, and receive basic health and psychosocial support under the care and support of adult caregivers.

• Child Protectors – UNICEF, introduced the “Lihlombe Lekhukalela – a Shoulder to cry on” initiative, under which “Child Protectors” are trained to protect children from sexual abuse, provide psychological and social support to traumatized children, and link them to vital services like health, police and schools.

• Birth Registration – UNICEF is providing support to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, through the office of the Registrar of Births to register children in all 360 chiefdoms in the country. As at December 2006, 47 percent of the target has been achieved.

• Tinkhundla (Constituency) Fit for Children (TFFC) – In line with the recently adopted Government Decentralisation Policy, UNICEF introduced the TFFC programme for mobilising and sensitising communities about the role and responsibilities of duty bearers, and the importance of placing children at the centre of program planning and budgeting at community and regional levels.

• UNICEF works closely with the newly established Ministry for Regional Development and Youth affairs, which has a department of "Women in Development", mandated to attend to women and children's issues.

• UNICEF, in collaboration with sister UN Agencies and NGO partners, supported Government to prepare the 2006-2010 National Plan of Action for Orphaned and Vulnerable children.