Child Protection Sessions for Parents and Caregivers. Training Toolkit

This toolkit was originally created for Jordan, with special emphasis on Syrian refugees, but the issues dealt with in the toolkit can be applied to any country. The development of this tool was an interagency initiative led by Save the Children International/ United Nations Fund for Refugees (UNHCR) with the generous support of the European Union, and with the participation and endorsement of Terre des hommes Lausanne, International Labor Organisation (ILO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), Save the Children Jordan, AVSI, World Vision and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

These child protection sessions for parents and caregivers are designed to help parents to better care for their children and to protect them from all forms of violence.  These sessions must be conducted by a trained facilitator who can facilitate a discussion on the issues addressed in this manual with parents and caregivers from the community. A group of parents and caregivers should ideally include 10-20 participants.

The nine sessions tackle the following issues: • The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC); • Child participation; • Child protection and understanding the types of violence and its effects; • Parents and caregivers’ role in preventing violence against children and providing psychosocial support to children; • Role of parents in protecting children from discrimination and bullying; • Role of parents in protecting children from child labor; • Role of parents in preventing and responding to separated and unaccompanied children; • Role of parents in protecting children from family violence, sexual abuse and early marriage; • Positive discipline. Each session is divided into section plans that provide the facilitator with guidance on how to conduct the session, plus Annexes for each major topic, including tips for facilitators. The Annexes contain background information for the facilitator as well as messages for parents that can be given as handouts.