Help & Shelter's Child Protection Policy

This policy applies to everyone who works with Help & Shelter (H&S) in any capacity, whether paid or unpaid (collectively called H&S representatives) and covers incidents that have occurred both before and after the start of the relationship with . Insofar as a provision in this policy is in conflict with any provision in H & S Governance, Policies & Procedures manual, this policy shall prevail. All H&S representatives must be provided with a copy of this policy and agree to adhere to and be bound by it in writing. ABOUT THIS POLICY H&S‟s vision is a society where every child (any person under 18 years) has the right to grow and develop to their full potential in secure, safe, environments, free from poverty and exploitation. The environments are the home, community, school and other institutions mandated to look after children. H&S aims to safeguard children from abuse and exploitation in line with article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which states that:

“States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s)/guardian(s)/caregiver(s)(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.”

Over the past 15 years H&S has worked actively with children who are affected and/or exposed to violence and child abuse. H&S provides additional support through counselling, court support,shelter services and public education activities, including community-based programmes. This policy:

1. Aims to clarify roles, responsibilities, procedures, reporting and referral requirements, to promote awareness of child protection issues and to provide for training of and additional support for H&S representatives. It aims to provide a framework to assist all H&S representatives in carrying out their duties to safeguard children‟s welfare
2. Makes clear H&S's position on child protection
3. Will be promoted and publicized through H&S‟s website and shared with and made available to networking partners, clients, donors, government agencies and the general public
4. Will be reviewed every year or sooner if appropriate

Help & Shelter is pleased to make the MS Word version available to any agency or institution which would like to create their own policy using a similar template January 2011