The Voices of Children and Young People Ravi R. Prasad Head of Policy and Research Child Helpline International The Voices of Children and Young People Ravi R. Prasad Head of Policy and Research Child Helpline International Giving a voice to children and young people

Child Helplines around the World Child Helpline International is a unique, global network of national civil society and government organisations providing counselling, care and protection to children and young people in their countries. CHI has 173 members in 141 countries. Established in 2003, CHI is marking its 10 th anniversary this year. Over the past 10 years more than 126 million contacts have been made with its member child helplines by children and young people seeking care and protection.

What Are Children and Young People Telling Us ? 126 million contacts with child helplines in 10 years. 85 million contacts: test calls, unanswered calls, pranks or silent calls. One in three calls are unanswered -> lack resources. Only 41 million contacts were responded to. In many cases the reasons for contacting are not specified. Annually, The number of contacts increase by 5% per child helpline. Outreach, free posts, bulletin boards, radio programmes.

Different Forms of Abuse and Violence

Abuse and Violence in schools. Teachers reportedly commit a large proportion of abuse and violence.

Emerging Issues

MDG’s Are Not Being Achieved Children Affected By Conflict Children Unhappy in Developed Countries Bullying and Cyberbullying - Menace in Young Peoples Lives

The MDG’s Are Not Being Achieved

Child Helplines in Conflict Zones Child helplines are acces to safety nets for children and young people in conflict zones. Children and young people in conflict zones suffer from extreme forms of abuse and violence, psycho-social mental health, deep trauma, neglect and exploitation. Sawa, Palestine 130,000 contacts since 2008 CWIN, Nepal 446,000 contacte during Millions of children are able to access care and protection if child helplines are available.

Psycho-social Mental Health in High and Very High HDI Countries

Call For Action: Financial allocations must be made at the national and global level to ensure access to child helplines, in order to protect children and young people from abuse, violence and exploitation.

You Can Make a Difference Listen to children and young people – they speak to child helplines Support and strengthen child helplines Child helplines are the key access points for children and young people to reach services Use child helpline data as evidence for policy making

THANK YOU for Listening to Children and Young People