Under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania al Abdullah, CHI’s Fourth International Consultation was held in Amman, Jordan on 16 – 19 November 2008. The event was kindly hosted by the Jordan River Foundation.

The Fourth Consultation welcomed 163 participants from 85 countries, and provided an excellent platform for knowledge sharing, networking and thematic discussions with child helplines, child protection and private sector experts. Participants included CHI’s associate and full members, key child protection partners, Government officials and partners from the United Nations and INGOs.

We would like to thank all the participants for their active involvement in driving forward the development of child helplines globally, and remaining so committed to the crucial role that child helplines play in making a positive contribution to millions of children’s lives all over the world.

Queen Rania al Abdullah herself welcomed the participants, and drew attention to the children’s lives that are touched by the work undertaken by child helplines. To view the speech.

We are delighted to share the presentations from the event. You can download the presentations from the CHI website.

• The final report on the proceedings of the IC will be sent to all delegates in 2009.
• Several photos from the IC are available to download from the CHI website.

In parallel to the International Consultation that took place in Jordan, CHI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the League of Arab States. The MoU supports the growth of child helplines in the Middle East and North Africa and, in particular, the twenty-two members of the League of Arab States. The MoU covers different areas of collaboration: creating child helplines where there are none, improving the quality of existing member helplines in the region, and advocating for child helplines as a tool for child protection. The MoU was singed in Amman on 16 November 2008.

Throughout 2007, CHI received requests from European child helplines to provide a platform for members to discuss and learn about New Communication Technologies. As a response to these requests CHI launched a working group dealing with this issue, supported by the European Commission. This group consists of child helpline services from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the UK. The first meeting of the group was held prior to the International consultation on 15 November in Amman; the second meeting took place in Amsterdam on 11-12 December. So far the group has identified topics such as ‘Virtual Environments’, “Social Networking”, the latest developments in the mobile phone sector, and “Games” as relevant for reaching more children in need of care and protection. Towards the end of 2009 the group plans to share their experiences and draw up recommendations on how child helpline services could make use of New Communication Technologies with the rest of the CHI global membership.

In Finland the CHI member “Mannerheim League for child welfare” was assigned 116 111 in December 2007. In Ireland the number was assigned to the CHI member ISPCC (Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) in June 2008. Both organisations made the number available to children on 10 December. Altogether 116 111 now is operational in eight European countries, namely Czech Republic (Safety Line Association), Germany (Nummer Gegen Kummer), Hungary (Kek Vonal), Poland (Nobody’s Children Foundation), Romania (Asociatia Telefonul Copilului), Slovakia (LDI, UNICEF), Finland and Ireland.

'The Right To Play' was the theme chosen for this year's Children's Day Celebration in Brunei, which was organised by the Community Development Department under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports on 25 November 2008. The annual program is held in conjunction with the Universal Children's Day that is celebrated on 20 November. The theme was specifically chosen in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in which Brunei Darussalam became a member in 23 December, 1995. The Children's Day Celebration aims to provide knowledge and awareness to the public, especially parents, on the basic rights of a child to play and be happy; to provide opportunities to children to showcase their talents; to act as a platform for children to interact with one another; to promote the roles and responsibilities of the Community Development Department that cares for the welfare and well-being of every child in the country. Some 600 students from fifteen government and private primary schools, including special needs children, participated in various activities, which included aerobics exercises and telematch competitions.

The Smile of the Child and the International Organization for Migration- Greece Mission organised a successful round table discussion in December in which children had the opportunity to speak about their experiences and form recommendations about how their rights could be protected! The discussion was held on International Children’s Day at the Zapeio Megaro and the discussion was centred on ‘Violation of Children’s Rights in Greece’.
Children were the exclusive participants of the discussion and commemorated the day that celebrates the UN Convention for Human Rights. Children from The Smile of the Child, members of the Association for People in Remission (KYTTARO) who were ill as children or adolescence and children of immigrant parents provided valuable insight into the reality of living in modern Greece and provided practical and attainable solutions that will protect children’s rights in Greece.

The SAWA organization, which operates the Palestinian child helpline, held its fourth conference in Ramallah on ‘abuse against children and women’ in November 2008. The conference was attended by local partners and international experts, the conference covered different issues such as sexual abuse against children, children safety and IT, awareness raising and other subjects. All participants at the conference stated the shared responsibility in combating violence against children in the Palestinian society.

On 15 December, the NFPCC announced the launch of its all-Russia competition for the best advertising and informational materials created by telephone helplines serving children and teens. The competition is part of the project ‘Telephone Helplines as a Tool for Identifying and Protecting Children in Need,’ financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Moscow. The goal of the competition is to increase access to emergency telephone helplines for children, teens and their parents. The competition is open to municipal, government and non-commercial organizations that maintain telephone helplines serving children, teens and families in the Russian Federation. The best outreach materials, including fliers, posters, booklets, calendars, stickers, rulers, pens, bookmarks, and other items promoting awareness of telephone helplines will be awarded.

On 24 November, 2008 the grand opening of the new telephone helpline for children and teens in Novosibirsk was held. In February 2008, the municipality began recruitment for telephone helpline counselors and started setting up the office space where the helpline now functions. The telephone counselors participated in an intensive initial training program, followed by a 5-day training seminar conducted by the National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NFPCC). NFPCC trainers then provided supervisory support to each counselor during his or her first shift at the helpline. The newly opened helpline put on an informational campaign in which staff handed out leaflets directly to children and teens, explaining the functions of the helpline and what types of help it provides. Thanks to careful preparation and support from NPFCC professionals, the new helpline will be an invaluable service for children and their families in Novosibirsk.

At the invitation of the National Family Safety Programme in Riyadh, CHI has visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 11-13 October 2008. The main objective of the visit was to discuss the possibility of starting a child helpline in the country. Field visits were held during the first day to the National Family Safety Programme, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and UNICEF. The brainstorming session took place on the second day and aimed at bringing the key stakeholders together to discuss the perceptions of child helplines and the steps forward. The meeting was attended by representatives from different organizations such as Ministry of Social Affairs, UNICEF Gulf Office, Saudi Telecoms Company, Arab Gulf for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), Middle East and North Africa Child Protection Initiative, The Human Rights Council, Ministry of Health, The Saudi Paediatric Association and others.
The three days have also included visits to the offices of MENA Child Protection Initiative to discuss ways of cooperation with CHI, and a visit to Arab Gulf for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) which is one of the main donors for CHI activities in Arab countries.

As preparation for the launch of the child helpline in Togo, twenty-seven people from various child protection institutions and organisations were trained in Lome on 10-21 November, 2008. The training was jointly supported by CHI, UNICEF-T ogo and LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia, and the Ministry of Social Services in Togo. The two-week training was conducted by two trainers from the CHI member child helpline LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia. The training was divided in two modules, namely, personal growth and basic counselling skills. The personal growth module equips a trainee with skills such as openness, feelings and attitudes, norms and values, and with techniques around conflict resolution. The basic counselling skills module focused on basic counselling in various counselling settings. The training had as its common goal to equip participants with counselling and referral skills and knowledge on how to protect children in the following areas: child exploitation, basic needs, mental health, psychological support, HIV/AIDS, physical health, vulnerable children, social problems. After the two-week training, participants felt well equipped with the knowledge and skills to develop and manage generic counselling and child helpline services and to run the planned Togo national child helpline.

CHI participated in World Congress III against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 25 – 28 November 2008. The goal of the Congress was to review developments and action taken in follow-up to the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action 1996 and the Yokohama Global Commitment 2001, to prevent, prohibit and stop the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The Congress also identified lessons learned and key challenges, and called for all stakeholders to commit to the implementation of goals and targets of a Plan of Action. Many of the 3000 participants included several CHI members, including: Childline Trinidad and Tobago; Childline Kenya and Fundación Noos from Brazil. CHI and several child helplines participated in the various pre-Congress regional consultative meetings leading up to World Congress III, which were held throughout the world. Because of your hard work, the final Rio de Janeiro Pact to Prevent and Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents asks governments to:

• Develop or enhance accessibility of existing telephone or web-based helplines, in particular for children in care and justice institutions, to encourage children and carers to confidentially report sexual exploitation and seek referral to appropriate services, and ensure that the operators of such reporting mechanisms are adequately trained and supervised.

Many thanks to those of you who worked hard to include child helplines in the final declaration.

CHI was asked to be a panelist at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that took place in Hyderabad, India 3-6 December. CHI gave a presentation on the important work of child helplines to protect children offline and online using various means of contact to reach children. The rapid changes and development of information technology have far fetching consequences for the way children communicate and the dangers that they encounter. Child helplines around the world are using new technologies to reach out to children in new ways and provide them with support if they need it.

Dataproforma: We would like to remind all child helpline members that filling out the dataproforma is one of the CHI membership With the Connecting to Chil dr en (2007 edition) fresh from the press (the hard copy will be available early 2009) the next round of data collection is set to start. The data proforma will be available online from 16 March until 30 April 2009. Members who cannot access the CHI data proforma online can also submit their data in hardcopy via their CHI Programme Manager.

PSP Checklist: Apart from the need for this information to improve quality and transparency of the services offered to children, filling out the PSP checklist is also one of three membership criteria. The PSP checklist will be available online from 16 March – 30 April 2009.

Membership fees: the last of three membership criteria is the payment of due fees. For 2009 we ask you to fulfil the membership fees by 30 April. Fees outstanding from 2008 may also be paid by then.