Our Commitment to Safeguarding
ChildFund is a global community of people who care about children, families and communities and take action to help them live at their fullest potential at every stage of their lives. We exist for children – and their voices and experiences guide everything we do. Each year, we reach millions of children and family members contending with poverty through programs that support them to create the conditions children need to thrive.
We have an overarching safeguarding policy and procedure for the protection of all program participants (children, young people, and vulnerable adults) from all harm. It lays out ChildFund’s commitment to implement viable measures and actions spanning all organizational activities online and offline to prevent, detect, report, and respond appropriately to all safeguarding concerns including but not limited to physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, trafficking, exploitation, kidnapping, suicide attempts, ongoing childhood trauma and violence, that may result from the actions or inactions of ChildFund staff, partners, representatives, programs, and operations - contextualized to each country where we work.
We have zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, neglect, and all forms of abuse/harm to all program participants including but not limited to sexual abuse, trafficking, exploitation, kidnapping, suicide attempts, ongoing childhood trauma and violence.
We have a duty of care, to do no harm, build a safe, and trusted environment that promotes the rights, welfare, and best interests of those we work with directly or indirectly; and those under the care of the organizations we partner with.
We are committed to the safe recruitment and selection practices of staff and representatives to address and manage safeguarding risks in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. In all recruitment and selection processes, ChildFund systematically vets and screens all personnel (employees and representatives) in accordance with local laws to check for unsuitable individuals who are not onboarded as employees or representatives.
We provide ongoing awareness raising and mandatory training of staff, partners, representatives, and program participants to understand their safeguarding responsibilities and the standards of behaviour expected of them and from them; and how to recognize signs and symptoms of abuse/harm, to prevent, report and appropriately respond to all safeguarding concerns.
We offer protection for the survivors, as well as whistleblowers and/or witnesses, and are committed to taking appropriate measures against any form of retaliation.
We support all our implementing partners to develop and implement comprehensive safeguarding policies and procedures consistent with or more stringent than ChildFund’s safeguarding requirements. Agreements with local partner organizations and other business partners include safeguarding clauses and they are monitored for compliance.
ChildFund is committed to taking corrective action in response to breach of safeguarding violations, including disciplinary action, legal or other actions against perpetrators or any other ChildFund representative aware of a violation.
We have an overarching safeguarding policy and procedure for the protection of all program participants (children, young people, and vulnerable adults) from all harm. It lays out ChildFund’s commitment to implement viable measures and actions spanning all organizational activities online and offline to prevent, detect, report, and respond appropriately to all safeguarding concerns including but not limited to physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, trafficking, exploitation, kidnapping, suicide attempts, ongoing childhood trauma and violence, that may result from the actions or inactions of ChildFund staff, partners, representatives, programs, and operations - contextualized to each country where we work
We share our commitment to child safeguarding with supporters (sponsors and other donors) so that they can align their own behaviors with this commitment, including understanding how communications between sponsors and children are managed. To ensure that children are not placed at risk by communications with sponsors, several risk mitigation strategies are to be in place:
We share our commitment to child safeguarding with supporters (sponsors and other donors) so that they can align their own behaviors with this commitment, including understanding how communications between sponsors and children are managed. To ensure that children are not placed at risk by communications with sponsors, several risk mitigation strategies are to be in place:
We share our commitment to child safeguarding with supporters (sponsors and other donors) so that they can align their own behaviors with this commitment, including understanding how communications between sponsors and children are managed. To ensure that children are not placed at risk by communications with sponsors, several risk mitigation strategies are to be in place:
We share our commitment to child safeguarding with supporters (sponsors and other donors) so that they can align their own behaviors with this commitment, including understanding how communications between sponsors and children are managed. To ensure that children are not placed at risk by communications with sponsors, several risk mitigation strategies are to be in place: