CHADET works with various groups of vulnerable children including children who live and work on the streets, children on the move and those at risk of migration, children exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation; orphan children; children passing through the legal system; children overburdened by exploitative labour, children under the influence of harmful cultural and social practices. It has developed a safeguarding policy that encompass the philosophies, policies, standards, guidelines and procedures to protect children and vulnerable adults and steps to promote their wellbeing. All its workers, contractors and visitors who have a chance to work for the organization or get in contact with children under its programs are expected to observe the policy. CHADET has cascaded its protection policy to all its stakeholders, including Community Care Coalitions, teachers, police officers and community members. It has also established a system that enables children to report any form of harm in their home, on their way to and from school and inside their schools. In order to encourage children to report cases of any forms of abuse anonymously, CHADET has placed letter link boxes in the premises of primary and secondary schools and cases are referred to relevant institutions as appropriate. CHADET ensures that gender, inclusion and participation are central to its work.
CHADET has developed and implemented projects that were designed to address the exposure of children to Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH), children at risk of migration, orphans, street-connected and children in contact with the law. Children are actively participating in the design, monitoring and evaluation of its projects. Hence, it has been actively working with local communities to enhance awareness about the importance of valuing children’s ideas on matters affecting their lives and their future.
Beyond what it does for the safeguarding of children as a child-focused organisation, with the financial and technical support that it obtained from The British Council under the CSSP2 program, CHADET was able to build capacities of 44 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) located in five regions (Somali, Benishangul, SNPPR, Amhara, Gambella and Addis Ababa) to strengthen capacities of other CSOs, to develop and/or strengthen their capacities to put in place a functional safeguarding policy and procedure to ensure the safety of children and adults at risk under their programs and offer referral linkages with service providers for victims of violence. This has been made possible through the provision of a series of training programs for safeguarding focal points of the respective organisations and consultations made with senior management and responsible staffs within the organisations through imparting useful knowledge and skills around safe programming and recruitment as well as case management and investigation procedures. Moreover, mentoring and coaching services were provided to the CSOs by CHADET’s safeguarding coordinator which, in turn, enabled the CSOs to develop an organizational culture where the management, staff members, contractors and partners working for the CSOs maintain shared values and develop the right behaviour towards the safeguarding of children and adults who are participating in their programs. Some CSOs were able to establish community- based safeguarding mechanisms through assigning watchdogs to report cases of abuse and disseminating information using local languages. Most of the CSOs that have been participating in the program were able to translate their safeguarding policies into local languages and familiarize them with their stakeholders.
Having realized the complex and diverse nature of the causes of children’s vulnerabilities, which are embedded in structural systems of the country as well as international economic, social, and political orders and require a multi-faceted effort by different stakeholders, in consultation with like-minded CSOs and support from The Eastern Africa Child Rights Network (EACRN), Save the Children and Plan International, CHADET has recently initiated the establishment of a Child Rights Advocacy Network to address the fundamental problems of vulnerable children and young people in Ethiopia.
SEAH
The first intervention area of CHADET was located in and around the largest commercial center, locally known as ‘Merkato’ in the city of Addis Ababa where there are large numbers of street and working children. Even if there is an opportunity for many people, especially the poor, to earn a living through engaging in petty trading, selling of house made drinks, causal labour, selling of fried cereals, etc., on the other hand, the prevailing conditions in the area exposes vulnerable children and young people to different forms of violence, including Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment (SEAH). Apart from the project that it implemented for the prevention and rehabilitation of children exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation, CHADET has led and successfully implemented a Multi-Sectoral Project for the Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation of Sexually Abused and exploited Children in Addis Ketema Sub-City of Addis Ababa.
Migration
Based on the findings of a research that was conducted in collaboration with Addis Ababa University, CHADET also launched a project for reducing the risks of migration among children in selected sites of South Gondar and South Wollo Zones of the Amhara Region. In this regard, CHADET developed an intervention model that is aimed at working with children, care givers, CSOs and government stakeholders at the places of origin, transit towns and destination cities. Transitional shelters were established in selected transit towns for providing counselling, referral linkages, family tracing and re-unification, etc. This was followed by another intervention that was jointly implemented with three other CSOs in the Northern Ethiopia corridor that stretched between the towns of Debre-Birhan in North Shoa to the town of Kobbo in North Wollo.
CSSP2
CSSP2 is a capacity development program designed to support Ethiopia’s civil society capacity to “contribute to inclusive and accountable governance; and an improved environment for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all Ethiopians”. To achieve this grand objective, the programme identified three themes (gender transformation, young people, and citizen-state engagement) and has taken human rights-based approach as its key strategic approach. In addition to channelling fund to local CSOs, the programme has been providing technical and capacity development supports through various means. In addition, the programme has been working with relevant government stakeholders to build their capacity and create space and platforms for effective civic engagement and learnings. The programme has been under implementation since August 2018.
Service Providers
Under the CSSP2 program, CHADET has been able to undertake a mapping of service providers for victims of abuse and/or violence. The service directory includes categorization of the institutions based on the nature of their establishment, i.e., non-governmental organizations, civic associations, government organizations, private organizations, etc. followed by the type of services that they offer to victims of violence for instance, whether they provide legal service, psycho-social support, medical and hotline service, whether they charge for the services they provide and considered cross-cutting issues such as gender and disability, the physical accessibility of the facility, whether it provides services for gender specific targets and persons with disabilities. This is helpful in that CSOs and other stakeholders could refer cases to the right person at the right place.
Training
Various training programs were conducted for the leadership, HR personnel and gender focal points of the respective CSOs. The major training programs and the key issues covered by the training include the following:
- Safe programming
- Safe recruitment procedures in the HR cycle
- Safe and accessable compliant reporting and handling mechanism
- Effective case management and investigation mechanisms
- Developing risk register and mitigation plan
- Creating linkages to existing local PSEA/GBV networks/coordination groups
Child Rights Advocacy Network
Drawing from the experiences of other countries that have already taken the initiative to establish national networks within the Eastern Africa Region, and realising the need for coordinating efforts that are being made by individual CSOs to alleviate the challenges faced by vulnerable children, CHADET has recently initiated the establishment of the Ethiopian Child Rights Advocacy Network (ECRAN). With the technical and financial support obtained from EACRN, Save the Children and Plan International, more than thirty CSOs have recently came together and drafted a constitution for the establishment of the network. Once registered with Agency for Civil Society Organisations (ACSO) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the network is expected to work for the protection of the rights of children in Ethiopia.