The Voices of Children and Young People

Pakistan
Nepal
Nicaragua
Colombia
Sierra Leone
Liberia
Ghana
Sudan
South Sudan
Burundi
Uganda
Ethiopia
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Zambia
Girl Power
Conn@ctNow!
In 2014 alone, child helplines
involved in the two programmes
assisted almost 800,000 children
and young people seeking help
and advice. Over four in ten
contacts came from Zambia. The
comparatively low number of
contacts in Ethiopia was likely due
to the problems with the functioning
of the three-digit toll-free number.
Total contacts 27 made in 2014
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Colombia
Ethiopia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Pakistan
Sierra Leone
Uganda
Zambia
Total
8,481
2,886
32,002
809
36,531
93,621
24,433
3,876
188,751
404,314
795,704
When looking at the coalitions individually, we can see that child helplines
operating in the Girl Power countries answered nearly 575,000 contacts
from children and young people. 28 Child helpline data also shows that
the most commonly used method of communication was the telephone
(accounting for nine in ten contacts). This was followed by contacts made
through outreach activities and walk-ins. The child helpline that answered
the majority of these requests for help was Zambia (seven in ten contacts),
but as can be seen in the table Nicaragua and Nepal also reported rather
high volumes of telephone calls. Children aged 10-12 represent the largest
group among the users of child helpline services (closely followed by
somewhat older teenagers).
Child helplines included in the Conn@ctNow! programme answered nearly
221,000 contacts, 29 of which the child helpline in Uganda reported 86% (and
all of them were made by phone). Child helplines in Colombia reported a
much variegated use of different means of communication, chat and e-mail
among others (almost 1,000 contacts in total). Similarly to the Girl Power
programme, the largest group among those who contacted child helplines
were boys and girls aged 10 to 12, followed by 13 to 15-year-old teenagers.
Children aged 7 to 9 hold the third place, having contributed to nearly 5,000
contacts, most of whom come from child helplines in Colombia.
The following pages present the reasons for contacts in the countries
included in the two programmes. Wherever possible, we also show the
distribution of contacts among boys and girls, in an attempt to highlight any
possibly significant differences between the two sexes.
27 The
total of contacts made in 2014 refers to answered telephone calls and contacts via other communication methods. Answered telephone calls include those which
lead to the child helpline providing direct assistance or active listening, as well as silent, test, abusive and other non-counselling calls.
28 Child
helpline data is available only for eight countries. Namely, in Liberia a child helpline has not been launched, whereas Plan Ghana officially inaugurated its pilot child
helpline at the end of October 2014.
29 This
total includes contacts made with Corpolatin (Colombia), Línea 106 – Bogotá (Colombia) and SAUTI 116 (Uganda). The data for Sudan is not available, whereas
Burundi and South Sudan did not have an operational child helpline in 2014.
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