When disaster strikes, children can lose much more than their homes. Schools close. Families are displaced. Familiar routines disappear. Children may become separated from parents and caregivers, while the services and community networks that would ordinarily help to keep them safe are themselves disrupted.
In the aftermath of the devastating flash floods and landslides that struck Nepal’s Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river corridor in late August, CWIN-Nepal has been demonstrating how an established child helpline and child-protection organization can respond when those structures are needed most. At the heart of that response is Child Helpline Nepal 1098.
CWIN’s work following the disaster has extended far beyond providing an emergency telephone service. Drawing upon our existing child-protection expertise, networks and specialist capacity, we rapidly mobilized a child-centred response combining protection, mental-health and psychosocial support, Psychological First Aid, specialist clinical support, humanitarian assistance and referral services.
By 10 September, our emergency response had reached 2,838 children and young people across five districts and 27 holding centres.
Child Helpline Nepal 1098 has remained an important part of that response: providing children and families with an accessible channel for information, counselling, referral and protection support, while CWIN’s teams have also worked directly in affected communities.
Our established mandate is particularly important in an emergency. Our work includes emergency rescue and relief, psychosocial counselling, support for missing and separated children, referrals, family tracing and reintegration, and coordination with government and civil-society organizations.
These are services that matter every day. In the aftermath of a disaster, they can become critical.
Helping Children Recover a Sense of Safety
Natural disasters create immediate physical dangers for children, but their effects do not end when floodwaters recede. Sudden loss, displacement, uncertainty and exposure to frightening events can cause acute psychological distress. At the same time, displacement can increase existing child-protection risks, including family separation, neglect, exploitation and trafficking.
Mental health and psychosocial support have therefore been central to our response. We mobilized 35 psychosocial counsellors, working alongside specialist professionals including psychiatrists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and psychiatric nurses. This has enabled us to provide Psychological First Aid, emotional support, psychosocial counselling and mental-health screening, while creating referral pathways for children and adolescents who need more specialised assessment or longer-term care.
And some of the interventions can appear deceptively simple.
- We have distributed 40 recreational kits, helping teams to establish structured, child-friendly activities in temporary settings. For a child whose ordinary world has suddenly been disrupted, opportunities to play, interact with other children and return to something resembling a familiar routine can form an important part of psychosocial recovery.
- We have also distributed 655 dignity kits to help meet practical needs among displaced children and young people.
- Crucially, this material assistance is not just stand-alone relief, but part of a wider approach supporting children’s dignity, safety and psychosocial wellbeing.
Protection Does Not Stop During an Emergency
The consequences of the disaster have also interrupted education and access to health and protection services. As the response begins to move from immediate emergency assistance towards recovery, we are looking at how children can safely return to learning and everyday routines. This includes temporary or flexible learning arrangements where necessary, access to learning materials and safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as recreational, social-emotional and psychosocial support.
Particular attention is also needed for children who are displaced or separated from their families, children with disabilities, and others who may face additional barriers to accessing services.
We have been working alongside local government and humanitarian and protection actors as part of the wider response. This coordination matters: no single organization or service can meet all of the needs created by a disaster of this scale.
A Child Helpline is Part of Emergency Preparedness
CWIN’s experience in Nepal illustrates something that is sometimes overlooked when we talk about child helplines. They are part of a wider child-protection system: connecting children to trained professionals, specialist services, emergency assistance, government agencies and community organizations. They can identify children at risk, make referrals and follow up cases. And, critically, they should already exist before an emergency happens. That existing infrastructure can make an enormous difference when a crisis suddenly changes the environment in which children live.
In Nepal, CWIN did not have to create child-protection expertise, counselling capacity, referral pathways or relationships with other organizations after the floods struck. We were able to mobilize and adapt systems that were already there.
Our work will continue long after the immediate emergency has passed. Psychological effects may become more apparent with time. Children separated from families may require continuing case management and support. Schools and communities need to recover. Children with disabilities must be included in that recovery. And children themselves need opportunities to be heard as decisions are made about rebuilding their lives and communities.
For CWIN and Child Helpline Nepal 1098, responding to this disaster therefore means not only helping children through an emergency, but accompanying them through what comes afterwards.
It is a powerful reminder of why resilient, accessible child helplines matter — every day, and especially on the days when everything else changes.
Madhav Pradhan
President – CWIN Nepal
CHI Regional Representative, Asia-Pacific
