Toward a Better Child Protection System in Eastern Europe

Program implemented in 7 countries – initiated and financed by Oak Foundation

For many years child abuse was a latent problem in Central and Eastern Europe. The media remained silent about it, while social policy recommendations and academic curricula avoided the issue. Professional assistance for abused children did not even exist. There were no publications, databases, or research concerning this problem.

  The period of systemic transformation in the region seemed to create an opportunity to make the issue of child abuse and neglect recognized as a social problem. However, even though some Central and East European countries transformed rapidly after 1989, the child protection system remained underdeveloped. Even today, despite the fact that the issue of child abuse is gradually achieving legitimacy in some of these countries, voices about the "exaggeration of the problem" can still be heard.

This is the reason why we — with great encouragement and support from the OAK Foundation — have decided to develop a programme aimed at developing a comprehensive system of support and protection for abused and neglected children. The project has been implemented in seven countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine. It has been carried out by seven NGOs working in the field of child protection. These organizations coordinate project activities in their respective countries and engage other institutions in the project.

 One of our major goals when developing the "Childhood without Abuse" programme was to provide professionals who deal with abused children with an opportunity to share their experience and good practices. We also wanted to help them in the gradual development of interdisciplinary cooperation among their organizations. Our activities have also been targeted at parents of children in need of support and at such children themselves.

 When launching the programme in 2005, we assumed that assessing the scale of child abuse was essential for effective efforts to reduce the problem. Research conducted in 2005 in all the participant countries showed a profound need for raising the public sensitivity to the problem. Therefore, nationwide social campaigns focusing on various aspects of child abuse have been a major component of the programme. Apart from that, thanks to the engagement of all the national partners of the project, numerous training sessions, supervisions, site visits, and conferences have been organized in each country. During these meetings professionals from all the participant countries share their knowledge and improve competencies necessary to help abused and neglected children. Furthermore, every year several materials are published, targeted both at children and their parents, and at professionals.

 During the three-year activity we have managed to gain support from numerous governmental agencies and NGOs, as well as other institutions and private sector companies, advertising agencies and media. Without them, it would be impossible to be so effective in achieving the objectives of the programme.