Background
Several years ago, I went overseas to work at an US-based organization, which was assuming administrative management of an orphanage and school, they had previously only funded. The orphanage had been wracked by a child abuse scandal. Two different foreign administrators had been abusing children – one physically and one sexually. The US-based nonprofit was shocked and appalled when they found out and quickly stepped in as the perpetrators fled the country. I was part of a team newly hired to rebuild, strengthen, and heal after such a terrible event. Among my many hats, I was the child protection officer and spent a considerable amount of my time on these tasks. I learned mostly on-the-job, using any assistance I could get through the government and local child protection networks and scouring the internet for information and tools. I found that our organization was not alone in discovering child abuse yet most did not directly deal with the structural problems so as to prevent future abuse.
After leaving this position, I found this situation similarly repeated in many places around the world and began working to help organizations strengthen their child protection “safeguarding” policies. The more I learned, the more the enormity of the problem overwhelmed me. Helping organizations one-by-one is too slow; children are being traumatized and physically scarred for life. I wanted a way to provide international nonprofits with the tools they needed to prevent and address abuse – all the information that I took years to learn and find on my own.
From there the Child Protection Toolkit idea was born: an online platform for nonprofits to access the information they need to create a culturally-appropriate, context-specific child protection program for their organization. It would need to be more than just “how to write a policy” but address how to teach local staff the skills they need to do more than just protect children but help them thrive. Discipline and group management skills to replace the severe corporal punishment with which they themselves were raised are essential. There must also be information on child development, sexual health, and trauma coping methods so that employees can better work with children and understand how to help them. The toolkit must be supportive, empowering, collaborative, and self-sufficient; it must be able to stand alone as holistic and comprehensive support for organizations.
Credentials:
BA in International Relations, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
MA in Peace & Conflict Studies, European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU), Stadtschlaining, AUSTRIA
Certificate for Child Protection, Monitoring, and Rehabilitation Training, Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Reconciliation (ASPR), Stadtschlaining, AUSTRIA
Technology for Monitoring & Evaluation Diploma, TechChange (online)