CHILD PROTECTION PROGRAM IN THE EARTHQUAKE AFFECTED DISTRICTS OF MANSEHRA AND BATTAGRAM

Child Protection include every kind of support to the children which fulfill their physical, mental, social and emotional needs in order to keep them normal and to play vital role in their mental and physical development.  According to the hand book of Humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response, Special measures must be taken to ensure the protection from harm of all children and their equitable access to basic services. As children often form the larger part of an affected population, it is crucial that their views and experiences are not only elicited during the emergency assessments and planning but that they also influence humanitarian service delivery and its monitoring and evaluation. Although vulnerability in certain specificities (e.g. malnutrition, exploitation, abduction and recruitment into fighting forces, sexual violence and lack of opportunity to participate in decision-making) can also apply to the wider population the most harmful impact is felt by children and young people.

Project Objectives

• To identify separated and unaccompanied children
• To provide psychosocial support to vulnerable children.
• To provide space for the children to express themselves freely.
• To provide space for females to share their problems and to find out the possible solution.
• To provide recreational and hygiene material to the children.
• To find out the most vulnerable children and to involve them in healthy activities.
• To make their survival easy and comfortable.-

To achieve the above mentioned project objectives the following activities have been carried out: -

1. CHILD FRIENDLY SPACE (CFS)
           
BEST has set up its CFS according to the guidelines provided by the Unicef. While creating and maintaining these child friendly spaces special measures have been taken to conform to all the protection and vulnerability factors indicated by UN and according to the convention on the Rights of the child adapted by the world community fifteen years ago, that guaranties the child’s rights to physical integrity and to the protection of his or her human dignity.Our Child Friendly Spaces are located at a place in the tent village where it is accessible by all the children living in the tent village where it is accessible by all the children living in the tent village. There is a wide play area for outdoor games in front of the tent, which is used for indoor tent activities. CFS is properly fenced, and it is positioned away from the general flow of pedestrian traffic. All area of CFS is child- Safe, there are no exposed wires. 

Recreational Facilities for Children

Children are given the material support and training for recreational facilities. They are given toys for indoor and outdoor games and drawing material. Child space workers arrange different activities.

Activity Plan in the Child Friendly Space

Following activity plan was followed in the child friendly spaces but child protection workers were trained not to follow this plan too strictly as it will remind them of school strictness and child friendly space may prove to be another school for them. 
           
            Table No. 1. Activity Plan in the Child Friendly Space

Age (Years)	Time	Activity
3-5	9:00-9:30	Assembly
	9:30-10:00	Attendance & Drawing
	10:00-10:30	Poems
	10:30-11:30	Games
	11:30-12:00	Story
	12:00-12:30	Lunch
	12:30-1:00	Break
6-18	1:00-2:00	Games
	2:00-3:00	Story
	3:00-4:00	Different Activities

 

2. Major Activities

• Decoration of the child protection spaces.
• Formation of committees of both boys and girls and assigning them responsibilities inside and outside of child protection space.
• Indoor and outdoor games.
• Indoor games include blocks, puzzles, story reading, drawing, exercise, rhymes, songs, drama, ludo, carom and quiz.
  Outdoor games include cricket, volley boll, foot boll, tennis, race, skipping, Frisbee, exercise, hide and seek.
• Lectures on hygiene promotion (personal and environmental).
• Counseling of mothers and children regarding their problems.
• Preparation of case studies of vulnerable and orphan children.
• Visits to the community for hygiene promotion, education, protection and security of the children.
• Capacity Building of Child Protection Workers and Volunteers
• Trainings for the Psychosocial Support Team

 3. Achievements

We developed life skills among children and trained our workers on life skills to enable children to use these skills effectively in their daily life. Psychosocial support given to the children by the child protection team produced good results. It raised self esteem, self confidence, decision making skills, problem solving skills, tolerance, positive thinking, interpersonal skills, and communication skills of the children. Awareness sessions increased the ability in children to control their anger, emotions and to identify personal strength and weaknesses to resolve conflicts. Life skills regarding health & hygiene proved to be very effective. Children were also guided how to cope with peer pressure and difficult situations

Team of Child Protection developed social skills among the children like fairness, sense of responsibility, humanities, good citizenship, skills of understanding others feelings, respect for elders.

Visits to the community for hygiene promotion, education, protection and security of the children proved to be very useful as it resulted in the better care given to the children by their parents or relatives.