Ensuring the Safety and Wellbeing of Every Student
Published Wed, Sep 25, 2024
Written by Dana Kaltenberger
Our students are always our priority, and their safety is of great concern to all the staff of EduNations. We are committed to create a safe space for them to be able to have their education in a conducive learning environment that is free from abuse or violence.
Our commitment can be felt in the following ways:
- Through Community Engagement - The parents, guardians and community stakeholders are called to be sensitive to the rights of the child; by doing so they will be able to understand what is expected of them as parents and stakeholders in those communities.
- Through Mentorship and Counselling - The wellbeing of the child is of great concern to us as an organization. We do have one-on-one mentorship sessions with our students and counselling them on life challenges issues. We also have some of our teachers that are trained as child protection agents, that help in looking after the affairs of our students in our various schools.
- Through Sex Education - We regularly have our sex education session for both boys and girls. This is the moment where the students are taught about their sex, sexuality, the dangers of early sex and sexually transmitted diseases.
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The child protection agent serves as an intermediary between the social workers of EduNations and the students in the various school communities. They give a report for every student that has been faced with some form of abuse to social workers. They also serve as school mentors in their communities, by providing social, moral, and spiritual support to the students. Child protection agents are very important to us at EduNations because they help by providing us with vital information about the students, also they regularly inform the students about their rights and encourage them to be strong and focused in terms of their education. Child protection agents are needed because they serve as a whistle blower when there is abuse in the schools and communities where they operate. Child protection agents are responsible to ensure that the students are safe and free from all forms of abuse in the schools and home, educate the parents on how to report cases of sexual abuse or any other forms of abuse to the police for further actions, and provide counseling for students that are faced with challenges. Child protection agents are a very important sector in our schools because EduNations are operating in different districts in Sierra Leone, it is very difficult for our social workers to track all the necessary information they need about the thousands of students that are attending the EduNations schools. Having the child protection agents allows the social workers to stay well informed. The child protection agents are chosen as two per community, except Rokassa that has four schools. Each of these agents are expected to work in the community they are serving as teachers. In each community we have one male and one female, and for Rokassa we have three females and one male serving as a child protection agent. |
EduNations Sierra Leone, Psychosocial Department organized one day training for Child Protection Agents, the purpose of this training was to increase awareness and knowledge to our beloved Child Protection Agents about their work in the various communities and to introduce our activities for this academic school year 2024/2025. This training was held on September 4th at EduNations head office in Makeni, Sierra Leone.
The training sessions were based on:
- The Child Right Act and the prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2024
- Sexual offenses
- Reporting in the school
- Child abuse reporting
- Counselling and child monitoring
- Introduction of the school WASH club, anti-drugs club and the girl’s cycle
During the Child Protection Training session, a representative from the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs Bombali District, a representative from the family support unit (FSU) Bombali District, theEduNations Education Secretary, our child protection agents from each community, the social worker interns and the EduNations social workers were in attendance.
We thank God for a successful meeting, and we are grateful to our EduNations volunteers, donors and sponsors for their support.
