Child protection in Macedonia
In December 2018 the Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation (PCF) commissioned Keeping Children Safe to provide support to their operational partner organisations. These organisations, based in different parts of the world, wanted to develop and strengthen their child safeguarding measures in accordance with PCF’s new Child Safeguarding Policy for Operational Partners.
Many charities in Eastern Europe that work with, or for children, are still not sufficiently aware about the urgent need of adopting child safeguarding measures, and embedding these in the work they do.
Whilst the first phase of this project was to ensure organisations had minimum child safeguarding measures in place, in the second phase Keeping Children Safe (KCS) provided remote assistance to help develop capacity within their partner organisations, and so to develop a robust policy framework.
One of these partner organisations was SEGA, which is the national platform for youth organisations in Macedonia. After more than 15 years lobbying they had succeeded in pushing for urgent changes in legislations covering: youth participation, information, employment, and activism.
‘SEGA developed it’s child protection policy in February 2019, with technical assistance provided by Keeping Children Safe. KCS’s assistance and guidance was very important for developing a precise and relevant policy that genuinely addresses potential child abuse issues. KCS helped us to ensure that all children’s rights are properly respected within the organisation. SEGA is very happy with the end result and appreciates the support provided by the KCS team. We would like to emphasise that their expertise and know-how would be valuable to any organisation wanting to improve the implementation of child safeguarding policies.’
Tomislav Gajtanoski, Resource Development Manager
A growing network
We’re building something unique: the Keeping Children Safe members’ network and Child Safeguarding Community of Practice.
The KCS members’ network comprises a diverse range of organisations and include large NGOs with a worldwide presence; smaller, local charities that work in specific regions or with specific groups of children; and others – think tanks, universities, foundations and training providers.
The KCS network is the means by which child safeguarding experts can help and support one another. By exchanging skills, experience and resources, our members are building a community of practice that will become more effective and influential as a result of working together. If keeping children safe is your priority, then please do consider joining our community of experts to share ideas and concerns with your peers and raise safeguarding standards around the world.
Join our network!
We are here to help organisations make sure that the children they or their partner organisations work with are safe from abuse. The first step to making sure no child in your care is coming to harm, is to use our free self-assessment tool, to find out how well your organisation is implementing child protection policies. Now is the time to act.
