In Copenhagen earlier last month – in the days leading up to our Regional Consultation of Child Helplines in Europe – our Danish child helpline member Børns Vilkår also hosted a sub-regional workshop as part of a project led by our partners at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). We invited our former colleague and KIND’s Child Protection Specialist Eva Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová to contribute a special guest blog about the workshop and the project.
On 8-9 October 2024, Child Helpline International convened a critical sub-regional workshop on child helplines affected by the war in Ukraine at the offices of Børns Vilkår in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting brought together key national child helplines from the region, including members from La Strada Ukraine, FDDS Poland, Children’s Safety Line Slovakia, Telefonul Copilului Romania, as well as Ukrainian members of Børns Vilkår. The event was part of Suzir’ya, a multisectoral project aimed at protecting children displaced by the war, led by Kids in Need of Defense and made possible by the generous support of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
The workshop’s primary aim was to engage in discussions on the changing landscape concerning the war and associated risks for children and young people. The workshop centred on three core objectives: identifying key challenges in service delivery, exchanging best practices and developing actionable strategies to enhance protection for Ukrainian children across the region, through increasing coordination between regional and national child helpline staff
The discussions during the two-day event were both insightful and urgent. Presentations on Day 1 highlighted the remarkable resilience of child protection services in Ukraine, despite the overwhelming challenges posed by the war. La Strada Ukraine reported a significant drop in calls – from 130,000 to 80,000 this year, owing to worsening working conditions for staff due to continuing Russian missile strikes – but also pointed out the persistence of issues such as suicide, self-harm and the complex balance between maintaining anonymity and mandatory war crime reporting.
Day 2 took a more collaborative approach, with participants engaging in smaller group discussions to explore key issues further, as well as to brainstorm solutions. Three main themes emerged that require deeper focus: mental health support, language and cultural integration, and the development of technological solutions to strengthen the quality and accessibility of helpline services for children from Ukraine. Organizations from Romania, Poland and Slovakia shared experiences of struggling to find Ukrainian-speaking professionals, a gap that continues to hinder service delivery. Moreover, the complexity of mental health challenges of displaced children was a shared concern among child helplines.
As the workshop concluded, participants left with a clear set of next steps, including establishing a working group to prioritize the development of technological solutions to promote transnational cooperation between child helplines, to ensure children have 24/7 access to child helpline services. Plans also looked forward to the upcoming multidisciplinary workshops and learning exchanges organized by Child Helpline International and supported through the KIND Suzir’ya project. These upcoming activities align closely with the broader aims of Suzir’ya, in its commitment to strengthening child-centred, multidisciplinary approaches to child protection and counter trafficking initiatives, to ensure Ukrainian children have access to high-quality legal and psychosocial services in the region.
For KIND, this workshop reaffirmed its commitment to supporting children affected by the war in Ukraine alongside its partner Child Helpline International. By fostering collaboration and embracing innovative solutions, the Suzir’ya project continues to strive to provide essential protection and support for some of the most vulnerable children in Europe.
Eva Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová
KIND (Kids in Need of Defense)
