The Voices of Children and Young People – giving a voice to children and young people worldwide. Child Helpline International (CHI)

The release of The Voices of Children and Young People marks the 10^th anniversary of Child Helpline International (CHI). This report presents 10 years of data collection from CHI around the world.  

Child helplines are mechanisms that allow children and young people to reach out for care, assistance, counselling, intervention and referral when they are in need. In many cases, child helplines are at the forefront of child protection providing children with an entry point into a system that may not be child friendly or accessible. With these crucial services offered to children and young people, child helplines are in a unique position to collect accurate data on the concerns, issues and in some instances horrors that children are exposed to. Because child helplines are the first unofficial contact, children are inclined to open up more with them than with other services. This vital wealth of data can be used to steer key policy decisions by governments, and provide guidance to civil society organisations to align their programmes relevant to the needs of children and young people so that collectively they are able to strengthen child protection systems at the national and sub-national levels.