On World Children’s Day (20 November 2024), in partnership with seven child helpline members in Eastern and Southern Africa, we officially kicked-off our “Voice Up Africa! Disrupting Harm by Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA)” project; a 2-year initiative funded by Safe Online.
Initiated in July 2024, the Voice Up Africa! project brings together child helplines in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda in a joint effort to prevent victimization and strengthen survivors’ support; empower children, caregivers and families to prevent OCSEA and access early support; and strengthen national, regional and global infrastructures to effectively tackle digital harms to children.
Central to this joint initiative is system strengthening, which includes infrastructure updates, capacity-building, awareness-raising, partnerships and research. To achieve the intended impact, the project envisages the following objectives:
- To increase the capacity and accessibility of child helplines in seven target countries in Africa to respond to OCSEA.
- To increase awareness among children, communities and other key stakeholders on the role of child helplines in relation to OCSEA.
In addition, these objectives will be realized through the attainment of five inter-related outcomes, namely:
- Technical barriers to accessing child helplines are minimized.
- High-quality child helpline services with OCSEA expertise in response and data management.
- Children, caregivers, communities, survivors and their families are informed and empowered to disclose and report OCSEA.
- Better integrated national networks for prevention of and protection against OCSEA.
- Improved collaboration between child helplines and online platforms to combat OCSEA.
As we forge ahead with the implementation of this great initiative together with our child helpline members in Africa, we look forward to strengthening partnerships, improving collaborations and building onto the body of knowledge as we strive to promote child rights and wellbeing.
Join us in this journey to foster a society where all children are safe from all forms of violence and abuse!
Joyce Karigia
Project Coordinator,
Voice Up Africa!
