Keeping Children Safe Newsletter - November ... - HAP International

Keeping Children Safe
Newsletter
November 2011 Issue 4
In this issue
New members
New toolkit ready to
order
Certification process
Child
Participation/Child
Protection Courses
Future Safeguarding
courses
ISPCAN Asia Pacific
regional conference
Recruitment:
treasurer position
Spotlight on Rajni
Singh from ChildHope
Upcoming Events
Keeping Children Safe welcomes new members
In the last quarter we are delighted to have accepted five new requests for
membership from:
IDS- Associate member
IDS is an international development charity that harnesses the power of sport
to transform the lives of some of the poorest children in the world by giving
them the chance to play sport, develop their skills and confidence and live
healthier, happier and safer lives.
Kindernothlife- Associate member
The overall goal of KNH is to achieve a world in which children and young
people can live a life of human dignity, develop personal talents and, together
with their families and communities, take their development into their own
hands.
GCPS-Technical member
GCPS is a consultancy group dedicated to increasing the safety and well-being
of children globally by supporting aid and development agencies to increase
the quality and effectiveness of their child protection policy and programmes.
Childfund Ethiopia-Full member
ChildFund Ethiopia exists to help deprived, excluded and vulnerable children
have the capacity to become young adults, parents and leaders who bring
lasting and positive change in their communities. ChildFund promotes
societies whose individuals and institutions participate in valuing, protecting
and advancing the worth and rights of children.
HAP- Technical member
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership- The vision of HAP International is of
a humanitarian system championing the rights and the dignity of disaster
survivors. The mission of HAP International is to make humanitarian action
accountable to its intended beneficiaries through self-regulation, compliance
verification and quality assurance certification.

New Keeping Children Safe Toolkit available to
order
The new Keeping Children Safe: A Toolkit for Child Protection is now available
to order. This is a revised toolkit with new material from Child-to-Child Trust
to incorporate child participation in child protection.
The toolkit has five components:
Tool 1 – Keeping Children Safe: Standards for Child Protection, a book which
explains what the basic standards should be for all organisations working in
child protection across the world.
Tool 2 – Keeping Children Safe: How to Implement the Standards – provides
guidance and activities to help you and your organisation meet those
standards.
Tool 3 – Keeping Children Safe: Training for Child Protection – a pack of
flexible training exercises and materials to help you and your organisation
train the staff to meet the standards.
Tool 4 – Keeping Children Safe: Children’s Participation in Child Protection - a
pack of flexible exercises and materials to use with children on child
protection
Tool 5 – A multi-language DVD to support and help with training and the
implementation of standards.
The toolkit is available in English, French and Spanish. To place an order
please email Sally Warren (Communications and Advocacy Manager):
sally.warren@kcs-coalition.com
We aim to have an online ordering system in the new year.
Prices: £75 for the full printed toolkit £35 for DVD only
30% discount for members
Keeping Children Safe Certification process
Keeping Children Safe is introducing a certification process to support
organisations in getting to child safe. Plan has very kindly offered to provide
support in developing this scheme.
All organisations will be eligible to be audited by Keeping Children Safe.
Certification will operate at several levels to offer the opportunity for
organisations to work through the process whilst strengthening their child
protection measures. Organisations will be assessed against a set of criteria
drawn from the Keeping Children Safe standards and the auditing processes
of our existing members.
The certification scheme will be managed within the Consultancy Service.
Organisations will also have the opportunity to be audited without engaging
fully with the certification process.
We hope that organisations which are members of other standards-based
networks such as People In Aid and HAP may be able to opt for a joint
certification process conducted by one of the standards-based networks on
behalf of all. This option will be discussed during the coming months.

The timetable for the development of the certification scheme is as follows:
November 2011 – January 2012
February – March 2012
November 2011 – March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
Agree on the minimum criteria and
certification options
Secure lead Keeping Children Safe
consultant for certification scheme
Explore options for joint certification
processes with HAP and PiA and
other recognised certification
schemes
Conduct auditors training to build
capacity of selected keeping Children
Safe consultants
Launch Keeping Children Safe
certification scheme
Worldwide interest in Child Participation/Child
Protection courses
There is still time to reserve a place for either the Child Participation/Child
Protection Training of Trainers Course or the Child Participation/Child
Protection Course for Practitioners that Keeping Children Safe and Child to
Child Trust are offering in November and December.
Applications have been coming in from all over the world, including
Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, Kenya, Moldova, Australia, and the
UK. Each course has room for only 20 persons, and they are filling up fast.
Interest in the courses has been expressed by governmental and
nongovernmental organisations from Papua New Guinea to Azerbaijan, and
Finland to South Africa. They include UN agencies, ministries, INGOs, as well
as local NGOs.
Both courses are based on Keeping Children Safe’s newly revised toolkit. The
toolkit now includes child participation as a key element in safeguarding
children. The updated toolkit was developed in partnership with Child to Child
Trust, a Keeping Children Safe member.
The Child Participation/Child Protection Training of Trainers Workshop will
start Monday, 28 November, 2011, and run until 2 December. The five-day
course will give trainers all the skills and tools they need to train adult
workers to incorporate Child Participation in Child Protection Work.
Participants should have significant experience in facilitating workshops and a
basic knowledge of child protection issues.
The Child Participation/Child Protection Course for Practitioners will start
Monday, 5 December, 2011, and end 9 December. The five-day course is
meant for those staff persons who are working with children, or will work with
them. It will provide the skills and knowledge necessary to help children to
learn about keeping themselves and other children safe. As a prerequisite,
participants should have a basic familiarity with Child Protection concepts and
procedures.

Both courses will take place at the Institute of Education, 20, Bedford Way,
London, WC1H 0AL. The cost of each course is £1,000 per person. However,
the fee is only £800 for those who register before November 4, and £900 if
registration takes place before November 11. The fee covers only the course;
it does not include meals and accommodation.
For more information contact:
Alex Dressler, Consultancy Manager, Keeping Children Safe,
Tel: 0044-2072508325 Email: alex.dressler@kcs-coalition.com
Plans for more safeguarding courses in 2012-13
Keeping Children Safe’s consultancy service is currently planning on delivering
a variety of safeguarding courses both in the United Kingdom and abroad.
They will include not only the Child Participation/Child Protection Training of
Trainers Course and Child Participation/Child Protection Course for
Practitioners, but also Safeguarding Children in Emergencies and
Safeguarding Children: A Leadership Course.
In order to reach the largest number of organisations, governmental as well
as nongovernmental, Keeping Children Safe would like to organise the
workshops in each region with one of its members. Among the regions
Keeping Children Safe is considering are: North Africa, the Middle East, West
Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia, Central Asia,
North America (Canada, the U.S. and Mexico), Central America, Brazil, the
Andean Countries, the Southern Cone, and Australia and the Pacific.
If your organisation is interested, please contact Alex Dressler, Consultancy
Manager, Keeping Children Safe, Tel: 0044-2072508325 Email:
alex.dressler@kcs-coalition.com.
ISPCAN International Congress December 2012
Keeping Children Safe would like to attend the International Congress on Child
Abuse and Neglect next year from 9- 12 September in Istanbul. If you would
like to work together with us on participating in the meeting please email
Sally and she will set up a working group.
New website goes live
The new website has launched and now has all the latest news from Keeping
Children Safe, member’s news on child protection issues and news of child
protection in other international organisations. Please email Sally if you have
news you would like included.
There is also a new library section so please submit resources to build up a
knowledge base on child safeguarding issues.
There is an area just for members to post any information, concerns or
questions they would like to share with other members. We are hoping this
area become a useful knowledge base for all members. To register for the site
go to:
http://www.keepingchildrensafe.org.uk/user/register

Keeping Children Safe is recruiting a treasurer
trustee position
We are looking for a Treasurer trustee to ensure that the Keeping Children
Safe complies with its governing document, charity law, company law and any
other relevant legislation or regulations.
Please contact Maryam Ehsani, HR Administrator for further information.
Email: maryam.ehsani@kcs-coalition.com Tel: 0044-2072508325
Spotlight on…Rajni Singh
Role: Partnerships & Programmes Manager
Location: London
Organisation: ChildHope, UK
How did it all start?
After my first Masters in Human Development, I joined a National level NGO
in India – Child In Need Institute (with nearly 300 full time staff) based in
Kolkata (West Bengal) as an Intern for three months to do a study on ‘how
child friendly their children’s centres were’. I became interested in their work
and applied for a contractual job! I was recruited as a Programme Associate in
August 1998 and worked with them for almost eight years growing within the
organisation (travelling a lot as well). I was promoted to a Programme Officer
role and then a Senior Programme Officer within this period. I was part of
their senior management team and mainly managed Education and Child
Protection Programmes (Street & Working Children, Children of Sex-workers),
with nearly 40 full time staff in my team. Thank God only seven reported to
me and not all ;)
What did you do next?
After eight years, there was a point when I felt quite burnt-out and thought of
taking a break and slow down a bit to do something different or perhaps just
work as a consultant and look for opportunities elsewhere so I left CINI in
March 2007.
I took a break and then worked with a small organisation as a Consultant,
reviewing one of their Programmes on Disaster & Risk Management in
Andaman & Nicobar Islands towards understanding Children and Young
People’s Participation in the Implementation and Monitoring of their Projects
(funded by Save the Children). This was done as a joint review with SCF staff
and it was a huge revelation for me to be able to learn so much from the
children and young people –it was amazing to be able to be part of! The most
important thing that I learnt from this experience was that CYPs can
contribute so much to a society from their experiences and adults have to
just make time and space to listen to them and then genuinely act on their
suggestions! We (ADULTS) have to respect them as humans who are capable
of making choices and decisions no matter what their age is. There is always
something to learn from them, one has to be considerate and passionate!

Projects can benefit so much with CYP’s views and inputs and they have to be
considered as project participants and not just ‘beneficiaries’.
What exactly made you choose to support children matters?
I have been a child (decades back) and I believe there is a child in all of us –
no matter how much we claim to be adults when we grow up (and this is for
all the right reasons – at least this is true for me)– so I relate to children and
young people and will do so all my life (at least I hope so)
What was next?
Then, I joined Save The Children, West Bengal Office as a Consultant –
Programme Coordinator for their Child Protection Programmes – for a short
time (4 months) and in the meantime was looking for a short course to come
to the UK. I found a good one (Master’s degree) at the University of East
Anglia on ‘International Child Welfare’ – pleaded for a scholarship with the
Faculty and Director of the Department and was graced by a 50% scholarship
because of my previous experience and so I came here in Sept 2007. Going
into studies after more than a decade challenged myself to the limits with a
new way of life and education system and got my second Master’s Degree! I
went back to India in 2008 and saw an advert for a Programme Manager for
Asia at ChildHope and by the grace of God I got the job! I have been with
ChildHope since then. The work culture here is different I have learnt so much
for the past three years. It’s amazing and I have only recently begun liking
London because of my friends and the exciting opportunities that I see to
work in this sector – based in London! It’s a hub of knowledge – one has to
just make time to absorb what’s around you!
Tell us about yourself and your current role?
I am responsible for leading and managing Partnerships & Programmes in Asia
(India & Bangladesh particularly – as one of our lead partners in India reaches
out to associate partners in Nepal, Sri-Lanka & Afghanistan too). This means I
have to develop and nurture partnerships with organisations in these
countries and then work with them to support project/programme outcomes.
Once funding is sought (which is the most tedious task as it requires lots of
administrative work) there is lots of travelling to do to support partner
organisations.
Describe a typical working day?
Ummmm…..in London a typical working day means lots of big and little things
to finish. A long task list for each day (Project Cycle Management, Programme
Development, Training/Workshop Designs) which gets completed most of the
days and sometimes not because new things keep coming up! It’s amazing
how much work is expected of one person, this is a work culture shock and
now I’m so used to it because in India we had too many people – doing too
many and too few things!
I look forward to my weekends now as any Londoner because I know how
much I need that and those two days aren’t enough.
When I am on visits to partner’s usually every 4-5 months it’s a different
story. I’m on the move and it is exciting to be able to interact with
stakeholders including CYPs and people from different walks of life. There is
so much to learn when you are on visits, first-hand experience of what is
happening out there!

What are you working on that’s challenging you at the moment?
I think the most challenging thing for me right now is to make time for the
Child Protection & Child Participation Theme that I lead at ChildHope. It’s one
of the most exciting things which I am passionate about but the mundane
project management and administration takes away a lot of our time and we
need to make room for innovative work around our Themes. We are all trying
to do this and I think networking meetings, workshops and seminars in
London and around gives us that opportunity but I need more time to be able
to read and educate myself about the current trends in CP and CPp and build
my skills as a Facilitator!
What do you enjoy most about working with Keeping Children Safe?
There is so much to learn from others, that’s what KCS makes us GAIN –
learning from others through networking and sharing and talk about issues
that concern us all and the CYPs around the world. Plus KCS members have a
forum to interact with each other at any time through the KCS website so
queries and doubts can be clarified at that Forum. I think there are loads of
opportunities that can be tapped through working ‘TOGETHER’ in any network
and I think we in the North have to make use of this there is no point telling
our partners to work together in the South when we can’t do it here,
ourselves!
What are your hobbies / interests outside of work?
Reading, listening to music, playing badminton, Interacting with CYPs and
adults – and yes TRAVELLING!
What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Cheerful & Helpful, Committed, Honest and Understanding!
Sum up your philosophy on life on one sentence?
Live life to the fullest – as if there is no ‘tomorrow’ – but safely ;)
What do you expect to happen in a near future?
Future – I don’t know – but I can always wish for the NEAR FUTURE and that
is for all the readers to think about taking out time to listen to Children and
Young People whenever they get an opportunity or better still to create that
opportunity for ourselves so that we can learn from the less aged groups who
are no less than us! All the best!

Contact Us
Editor:
Maryam Ehsani
Email:
info@kcs-coalition.com
website:
http://www.keepingchildre
nsafe.org.uk
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7250
8325 (direct line)
Upcoming Events
Child Participation/Child protection training 28 Nov-2 Dec 2011
(Training of Trainers Workshop)
(London)
Child Participation/Child protection training 05 Dec-9 Dec 2011
(Practitioners Workshop)
(London)
UK Christmas / New Year Closure 26 Dec 2011 – 3 Jan 2012
Members Working Group Meetings Jan 19 2012
(London)
Apr 19 2012
(London)
Jul 19 2012
(London)
Oct 18 2012
(TBC)
Keeping Children Safe Board Meetings Jan 19 2012
(London)
Apr 19 2012
(London)
Jul 19 2012
(London)
Oct 18 2012
(TBC)
Next issue of Keeping Children Safe Newsletter Feb 02 2011