Child Protection
We provide critical protection services to children who are a protection risk or who are unaccompanied and separated. We run two Child Friendly Space Centers and the Interim Alternative Care Center, an emergency shelter for unaccompanied and separated children. We also advocate and mobilize communities around the protection and well-being of all children, and provide opportunities for children to play, acquire contextually relevant skills, and receive social support. Our protection services include family reunification, foster placement, emergency shelter, psychosocial activities, awareness raising for children and parents, Psychological First Aid, and more.
We build Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) and design child friendly activities to help reduce a range of distressing effects of a crisis on children. Child Friendly Spaces provide child-focused and child-friendly environments in which children continue their cognitive development and can give them opportunities to learn on a variety of levels. CFS activities are designed to build on children’s natural and evolving coping capacities, and proactively involve children in the selection of activities. They help children establish a sense of security and build self-esteem.
At our Interim Alternative Care Center in northwest Syria, we provide unaccompanied and separated children with critical protection services. This includes a nurturing home with dedicated caregivers, accelerated learning support so they can catch up on their education, psychological support services, health services, and facilitating family reunification or foster placement.