Building trust in safety with us

‘We have a huge responsibility towards the children and young people we know and support,’ says Majorie Kaandorp, Child Safeguarding & Child Protection Advisor at Liliane Fonds. She explains how we fulfil that responsibility, together with our partners.

Children with disabilities face a higher risk of violence
I hop on a plane once or twice a year to visit Liliane Fonds partner organisations. I don’t always visit programmes or schools or rehabilitation centres. Instead, I spend three to four days talking to 15 to 20 partner staff about safeguarding and protection of children and young people with disabilities against violence and abuse.

This is especially important because children and young people with a disability face a disproportionate risk to become a victim or survivor of intentional and unintentional physical, sexual or psychological abuse.

There are several reasons for this. Persons with a disability are not always accepted by the community they live in, by neighbouring children or even by their own families because of their disability. They are seen as different, as inferior. Negative social norms, traditions and beliefs create stigma and discrimination that make people with disabilities more vulnerable for violence and abuse.

This is the reason why it is extra important that we keep children and young persons who are participating in our programs safe. Our responsibility as an organisation is clear: children and young people must be safe, also when they take part in our programmes, projects and activities.

Safeguarding starts with our own responsibility

Even when children and young people participate in a programme that is meant to support them, they can be exposed to inappropriate behaviour.

• A staff member, teacher or classmate may yell at, ignore, hit or even sexually assault a child.
• An activity may not be accessible to wheelchair users or someone who has a hearing impairment.
• A photo may be taken and published without the consent of the child or young person concerned.

These are child safeguarding issues.

How do we prevent this from happening? And when it happens, because let’s face it, it does happen, how do we as organisations respond to it?

How do we make sure that people feel comfortable enough to report something that isn’t right? And how do we ensure that the children and young people affected get the right care and support?

A safeguarding policy is only the beginning

We discuss all these questions in training and peer learning sessions with partners. Every organisation has a code of conduct or a child safeguarding protocol or policy. But a piece of paper soon gathers dust. Guidelines and protocols need to be applied in practice.

This starts with a better understanding of exactly what a disability is and how it affects a child’s standing in society. We look at the definition of violence, abuse and neglect, and how to recognise these in children with disabilities.

We discuss what protective measures we can take in our work, how we can mitigate possible risks, what reporting channels are available and how an organisation should follow up on reports of inappropriate behaviour and violence.

Difference safeguarding & protection

In our work, we make a difference between child safeguarding and child protection. We do this, to make it clear what the responsibility of an organisation is and where that responsibility stops. Child safeguarding is our responsibility as an organisation and the responsibility of our staff and partners. We must make sure that our programmes are safe and that children and young people can participate in our activities, projects and programmes without being harmed.

At the same time, children need protection from violence and abuse that might happen in their families, communities and wider society. That is a broader responsibility, shared by governments, communities and society. We have open and honest conversations about these different responsibilities in our sessions.

We need to talk about what is difficult

In every meeting and every conversation with my colleagues, I learn so much. For instance, about the reasons why participants might not report a safeguarding incident to the organisation. Families and children depend on the help of our partners and are afraid they might lose the support if they report incidents. Sometimes children and their parents do not recognize certain behaviour as inappropriate because they have become so used to all kinds of discrimination and violence. Our partners might also find it difficult to follow up on incidents as they are proud of the reputation they’ve built up in the community where they work and don’t want to draw attention to anything negative that goes on.

What happens when reporting violence is difficult?

In the Netherlands, we generally trust the police and are generally comfortable reporting a crime. We also have a duty to do so.

In other countries, things can be different. The police are not always trustworthy, so sometimes partners look for a pathway other than a legal one to seek a solution. For example, a volunteer who had sexually abused a young girl in a shelter was dismissed from the organisation but also had to financially support the girl and her child and provide a home for her.

In the Netherlands, the police would be contacted immediately, and the perpetrator would receive a prison sentence if convicted. But in this situation, that was not a possibility.

The pregnant girl could not fall back on a strong social safety net or financially support herself and her baby. The solution was for the offender to provide for the girl and her child financially, which cannot be done from prison. Is it a good solution? Is it the right one? Is it in the best interest of the girl and the baby?

And what happens if the perpetrator forces himself on the girl or another woman again? I cannot judge from a Dutch perspective, but we discuss it with each other in our training and peer learning sessions and online afterwards. Most importantly, we discuss how to prevent such cases in the first place.

Children must be safe with us

We have a huge responsibility towards the children and young people we know and support. They trust that they are safe with us.

We need to do everything to ensure that, however difficult that may be at times.