Our Work

Here you can find an overview of the many projects that Child Helpline International has taken on over the years, with the support of our donors and partners.

June 2024
Ongoing
Voice Up Africa! Child Helplines Disrupting Online Harms

In partnership with seven of our child helpline members in Africa, we are supporting child helplines' capabilities to tackle OCSEA. By upgrading infrastructure, training, raising awareness, fostering partnerships and conducting research, we strive to enhance child helpline accessibility and service quality, and elevate community awareness. 

2022-2025
Ongoing
CHIQUAL

Co-funded by: the European Commission Citizen, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (2021-2027).

This project focuses on our member child helplines in the European Union.

The activities being implemented include collection and analysis of child helpline data, thematic data publication, research and assessment of child helplines against Core Quality Standards for Child Helplines and various communications and advocacy activities.

 

Publications:

2022-2023
Completed

Funded by: UNICEF UNICEF European and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO).

Our Ukraine Crisis Response project focuses on supporting the work of our Ukrainian member, La Strada Ukraine, and the child helplines in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Moldova and Czechia, who are at the forefront of providing help and support to children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

 

Blogs:

2022
Completed
CSAM Awareness / Help Children Be Children
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Funded by: Meta (formerly Facebook). 

Together with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and Meta, we are undertaking an awareness raising project in ten target countries in Africa, specifically: Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

 

Blog:

 
ELearning courses:
2022
Completed
Hearing the Voices of Ukrainian Children & Young People (Phase 1)

Funded by: Terre des Hommes & Børns Vilkår.

This 6-month project was based on the current needs for Ukrainian-speaking children and child helplines in Ukraine and neighbouring countries (Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia).

 

ELearning courses: 

2022-2023
Ongoing
Building capacity and counselling / listening skills for hotline operators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Funded by: Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The objective of this project is to build the capacity of operators to triage calls, develop listening skills and resilience through enhanced supervision and training. An overall review and update of recruitment and screening procedures is to be developed in tandem, along with a face-face training induction, that will be piloted and used subsequently for new recruits. 

The two main activities are as follows: 

  1. Creation of an eLearning course and an in-person ToT for hotline operators and supervisors  
  2. Review of screening procedures and updated supervision procedures based on good practices and established child safeguarding standards.
2021-2024
Ongoing
Empowering to Protect
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Funded by: the Oak Foundation.

 

2021-2022
Ongoing
Linking and Strengthening Learning of Child Helplines in Eastern and Southern Africa  (LLESA)
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Funded by: UNICEF Eastern and Southern Regional Office (ESARO).

This project targets 17 countries of the East and Southern Africa region that have an operational helpline out of the 21 UNICEF Eastern and Southern African countries, namely: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This project seeks to strengthen data collection and analysis of the contacts received by the child helplines operating in East and Southern Africa (ESA) Region, as well as facilitate the exchange of learning, knowledge and good practices – specifically on the topics of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) among children and young people, and staff stress management.

 

ELearning courses: 

  1. 2022 Mental Health in Children 
  2. 2022 Psychological First Aid 
  3. 2022 Child Protection 
  4. 2022 Caring for the Helpline Counsellor 
2021
Completed
Covid-19 Coordination
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Funded by: UNICEF HQ. 

The Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR) and Child Helpline International partnered to engage a COVID-19 Field Support Coordinator who supported Child Helpline International in the COVID-19 response. 

This project specifically focussed on the coordination of operational support in humanitarian settings and/or COVID-19 affected contexts.

2021
Completed
Child Helpline Staff Training in Zambia and Uganda with Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). 
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Funded by: UK Government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund via the Internet Watch Foundation. 

Together with Internet Watch Foundation’s (IWF) own project, we came together to support Sauti 116 and Childline Zambia with increased knowledge and tools to respond to online child sexual exploitation and abuse.  

As part of this project, we developed an eLearning course focussing on the role of hotlines and reporting portals in tackling online child sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as developing custom flyers for the two child helplines to distribute among children and young people nationally.  

 

ELearning course: 

2020-2022 
Completed
Running Away: Drivers, Awareness and Responses (RADAR)
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Funded by: European Commission via Missing Children Europe.

The aim of the project is to change the way runaway children are perceived and to improve society’s understanding of why they run away. The project's lead is Missing children Europe and partners involved are the University of Liege (based in Belgium), Child Focus (based in Belgium), The Smile of the Child (based in Greece), Itaka (based in Poland), Child Helpline International (based in the Netherlands) and IAC Instituto de Apoio à Criança (based in Portugal).

 

Blog: 

 

ELearning courses: 

2020-2021
Paused
Mise en place d’une ligne d’assistance aux enfants au Mali pour le signalement des violences y compris dans le contexte du Covid-19 
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Funded by: UNICEF Mali.

Provide technical support and guidance to the Government of Mali and UNICEF Mali, in collaboration with Plan International for the establishment of a national child helpline.  

This project has been temporarily paused. 

2020-2021
Completed
Strengthening the Honduran National Child Protection System to Install its National Child Helpline  
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Funded by: UNICEF Honduras.

Provide technical support and guidance to the National Child Protection Agency DINAF (Dirección de Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia) and UNICEF Honduras with the strengthening of the national child helpline, Línea 110. This included support with the development of Standard Operating Procedures, awareness raising strategy as well as training and capacity building for Línea 110 staff.

2020-2021
Completed
Establishment of a National Child Helpline in Jamaica 
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Funded by: UNICEF Jamaica.

Provide technical support and guidance to the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA), the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and UNICEF Jamaica with the establishment of a toll-free national child helpline. SafeSpot. This included support with the feasibility study, creation of a practical set of policies and procedures, as well as training and capacity building for SafeSpot staff.

2020-2021
Completed
Voices in Eastern and Southern Africa During Covid-19 (VESAC)
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Funded by: Tides Foundation and Twilio.org.

The VESAC project supported three child helplines in Burundi, Ethiopia and Malawi as they responded to increased contacts being made by children and young people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

ELearning courses: 

 

Data Publication and Technical Note: 

2019-2020
Completed
Voices of Children and Young People in Eastern and Southern Africa
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Funded by: UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO).

This project included the development of regional SOPs, trainings, peer exchanges, eLearnings on data management and advocacy, and thematic reporting.

 

ELearning courses: 

2019
Completed
Lanzamiento de una línea telefónica de ayuda paraniñas, niños y adolescentes de El Salvador 
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Funded by: UNICEF El Salvador.

2019
Completed
Estudio de factibilidad para la creacion de  la linea de denuncia en casos de violencia contra ninos, ninas y adolescentes 
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Funded by: UNICEF Panama.

2018-2021
Completed
WeListen
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Co-Funded by: European Commission – Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).

This project focussed on our member child helplines in the European Union.  

Various activities were implemented, including data collection and analysis of child helpline data, thematic data publications, review and implementation of the Core Quality Standards for child helplines, youth participation activities and Communities of Practice and eLearning courses on inclusive practices with focus on LGBTQI+ children, children in migration and children with disabilities.  

 

ELearning courses: 

 

Publications:  

2018-2020
Completed
Act, Collaborate and Train to End Violence Against Children (ACT to EVAC)
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Funded by: Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.

In 2018, we partnered with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) to support five target countries in implementing a collaborative approach to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) according to the Model National Response framework.  

 

This project comprised of: 

  • Five child helpline trainings 
  • eLearning courses and handbooks for child helpline counsellors 
  • Five law enforcement trainings 
  • Five medical trainings 
  • Eight educators’ trainings 
  • A Technical Guidance Resource 

ELearning course: 

 

Publications: 

2018-2019
Completed
Estudio de factibilidad para una linea de ayuda y formulacion de recomendaciones para 911 para la atencion de ninas, ninos y adolescents  
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Funded by: UNICEF Mexico.

A series of training courses to strengthen the capacities of child helpline counsellors in Mexico in active listening, psychological first aid, detecting of signs of violence and supporting parents and caregivers. All materials are in Spanish and available for members to access on the eLearning platform. 

 

ELearning courses: 

2018-2019
Completed
Strengthening operations of child helpline 1098 in Bangladesh 
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Funded by: UNICEF Bangladesh.

Providing technical support and guidance to the Department of Social Services and UNICEF Bangladesh with the strengthening of the Child Helpline 1098 in Bangladesh. This was done through assessment of the current operations, development of capacity building materials including training modules, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and conducting of ‘training of trainers’.

2018
Completed
Cayman Islands
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Funded by: UK Government. 

Child Helpline International and CEOP collaborated on the development of a Needs Assessment in order to analyse the conditions and requirements for the creation establishment of a child helpline in the Cayman Islands. The Needs Assessment considered the local context, the strengths and weaknesses regarding existing resources, needs and opinions of children and youth regarding this specific service. The main goals included evaluating existing resources (financial, legal, technical, institutional and geographical) and landscapes (child protection mechanisms, and existing [child] helplines and hotlines), engaging with stakeholders (including children) to identify the needs and expectations, and devise recommendations for the creation of a child helpline. 

2017-2019
Completed
Mise en place d’une ligne d’assistance aux enfants au Benin.  
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Funded by: UNICEF Benin.

This project involved supporting the Government in Benin to finalise the setting up of the child helpline.

2017-2019
Completed
Guatemala
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Funded by: UNICEF Guatemala.

2017-2019
Completed
Improve Child Helplines in Eastern and Southern Africa 
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Funded by: UNICEF Eastern and Southern African Regional Office (ESARO).

2017-2018
Completed
Training Modules for Child Helplines: Child Online Protection  
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Funded by: Telenor.

 

ELearning course: 

2017-2018
Completed
Linea 102 - Argentina 
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Funded by: UNICEF Argentina.

2017
Completed
UNHCR project
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Funded by: UNHCR. 

 

ELearning course: