Caritas India organised “Training on Child Protection in Humanitarian Actions” through Webinar on 26^th June 2020. Resource Persons from Caritas Internationalis, Caritas Germany & Save the Children India. This training aimed to achieve capacity building on child protection standards, learning from grounds, sharing of experiences, safeguarding and strengthening mechanism for child protection. He welcomed all the participants and the speakers for the training. The Training was moderated by Ms.Leeza, AHT Manager, Caritas India(CI).  The training began by the welcome and context setting by Fr. Jolly, AED, CI;  “As Caritas India is engaged in humanitarian action and the current pandemic and several other disasters ensuring child protection. CI firmly believes in its own protection systems through continuous capacity building of our staffs as well as our partners in order to adhere the child protection standards in the best interest of children and prevent any form of harm to children.”

Fr.Paul, ED, Caritas India delivered his keynote address saying, “Caritas India has formed strategy for the response in the context of Covid19 aligning with the strategy of Caritas Internationalis as to be informed, to be trained and to be compassionate. This is the same strategy we incorporate for the protection rights of children. We must be part of the solution and not the problem. We need to be informed and trained to be the protectors, ambassadors, of the rights of the children. Today, this training will help us to learn lessons in creating safeguard standards for children.  Caritas Germany has been supporting us in this program for the child rights in different parts of the country partnering with Germany has been a tremendous learning experience for us and this has helped us to be the champions of the cause for the children.”

“To put child protection in practice during the emergency is a big challenge. Church partners are doing a lot of intervention in this regard. We need to reflect on how to improve the situation and standard at this global discussion. We need to discuss how to protect children from all sort of abuses and how to increase the participation of children in these programs”, said Mr.Peter from Caritas Germany.

Resource Person- Ms.Irene Bros from Caritas Internationalis delivered a very insightful session on Safeguarding Policies. She discussed the following major issues/topics where she ensured that participants actively contribute to the discussion. She dealt on the topics of how and why we need to safeguard people. Further, she explained on key safeguarding policies: code of conduct, code of ethics, CI children and vulnerable adults safeguarding policy, CI Anti-Harassment Policy, CI Complaint Handling Policy and Procedure.

Resource Person – Ms.Julia Lampert from Caritas Germany spoke about on minimum standards for Child Protection during Humanitarian action. A video was shown to get into the emergency context. The video was all about Child Protection in Humanitarian Action narrating the story of a girl named Samira and how she was helped by child protection during the disaster.

Ms. Nabina Banerjee, Resource Person from Save the Children India delivered her session on the topic, “Child Protection during Humanitarian Action – Experiences from Ground Zero”. She started her session with thought-provoking questions “What has happened immediately during COVID 19 and Amphan? What comes in mind at first as a social worker. Who could be more adversely affected in that scenario? How and why?”

She talked about the experience of Save the Children distribution at the time of cyclone Amphan crisis and what are the challenges they faced while doing the response in a remote village.

During the open session moderated by Ms.Rashi, Child Rights Officer, several CI partners shared their Child protection Practices and challenges they are facing amidst COVID. Sr. Rose Paite, Director – Centre for Development Studies shared the present challenge on how Children are further being deprived of their rights and the current glaring digital divide creating a new learning crisis.

Fr.Jaison Manuel, Director PGSS, Uttar Pradesh spoke about the strong child protection norms that their organisation adheres to such as safe recruitment, training and capacity building of staffs on Child protection policies. He focussed on doing Risk assessment in Humanitarian actions to ensure child protection during these times.

Sr. Subeshna, Director – BSA, West Bengal shared about the practical steps they take to adhere to child protection norms such as Visitors Register, Commitment Forms, Creating Safe Environment for Children at office as well as at the field. Further, she shared that during these times of COVID staying connected with children and engaging them in positive engagement strategies are some of the strategies to protect children.

The Training ended on a positive note wherein it was decided to discuss a way forward in building collective actions, strategies to ensure child protection and tackle the emerging challenges amidst this Pandemic and Humanitarian crisis.