To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Child Helpline International, we invited some of our members – from all around the world, and whether they are founding members or members who have only recently joined us – to share their stories in this special series showcasing child helplines across the globe.
ANAR, SPAIN
ANAR Foundation is a non-profit organization that has been helping, promoting and defending the rights of children and adolescents at risk and in need of advice and support since 1970.
Our main programme since 1994 has been the “ANAR Helplines”, through which we give immediate response to any problems facing a minor. Staffed by psychologists, lawyers and social workers specialized in child and adolescent care, our child helplines are free of charge, confidential and operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The purpose of the ANAR Helplines is to listen to children and adolescents who can call or write to us to talk about the situations in which they find themselves at risk: in some cases, extreme risk such as sexual aggression, suicide attempts, physical or psychological abuse, mental health disorders, etc. ANAR can then provide the tools to solve these problems and protect them.
Our helplines include: the Telephone for Children and Adolescents, the Telephone for Family and School Centers, the Telephone for Missing Children, and the ANAR email and ANAR Chat services. In addition, we answer telephone calls about bullying and the Central Government’s Telephone for Gender Violence, when minors are involved.
17,896 children and adolescents were helped by ANAR Foundation in 2022. Each minor may need several contacts to resolve the issues they are facing, so in that year we have answered 217,693 help requests from all over the country, receiving an average of 700 contacts per day. Every request for help is handled with the utmost professionalism until the right solution is found, no matter how long it takes.
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Starting the Helplines was a dream for me. In the beginning it was hard – we did not have great support because they said that it would not work in Spain. However, once we presented ourselves at a press conference, the telephones started to ring, and this thrilled us because we knew then how necessary it really was.
During the past 30 years we have accomplished a lot, but we want so much more! This is not the end, we want to reach every child and adolescent in Spain, so that not a single child suffers because they or their adult environment do not know about the ANAR Telephone/Chat.
Silvia Moroder de León y Castillo
President of ANAR Foundation
