The Voices of Children and Young People Ravi R. Prasad Head of Policy and Research

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

2. 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 10th 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.

4. 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.

6. Different Forms of Abuse and Violence 2003-2012

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

9. Emerging Issues

10. 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

11. The MDG’s Are Not Being Achieved

12. 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 2003-2009 • Millions of children are able to access care and protection if child helplines are available.

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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. THANK YOU for Listening to Children and Young People info@childhelplineinternational.org www.childhelplineinternational.org