Training enhances child safeguarding practices |09 March 2024
- ‘Looking beyond abuse’
A training aimed at enhancing child safeguarding practices within the community was held this week for a group of 25 professionals and individuals working with children.
Taking place at the Independent School, the workshop is a collaboration between the National Council for Children (NCC) and the British High Commission.
The aim of the training, under the theme ‘Looking Beyond Abuse’, was to equip them with advanced skills and insight on how to safeguard children from various forms of abuse.
It covered critical topics such as safeguarding and child protection, contextual safeguarding, abuse - definitions, behaviours, signs, indicators, the role of technology in abuse, grooming, and perpetrator behaviours, barriers to disclosure, communicating and engaging with children – good practice and many more.
It was coordinated by Sarah Brown, training and development manager from Marie Collins Foundation, a UK-based charity founded in 20211, which is leading the way both nationally and internationally when it comes to responding when a child has been the victim of technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TACSA).
Rushelle Reid, partnership manager for Marie Collins Foundation, explained they are a small team with a lot of expertise in child protection areas. “This was an outreach from the British High Commissioner office as they had access to our training material before. Thank you for having us here, we are hoping to help in the development of the full landscape of child protection in the Seychelles.”
According to NCC’s chief executive, Yasmin Umarji, the partnership began two years ago with the British High Commissioner when NCC hosted training for a multi-sectorial group involving social, health, education representatives.
“The message is to review policies, and systems, and to work together in order to put the child first,” said Mrs Umarji.
Steve Hoareau, head teacher of English River secondary school, said most of the things they are learning are not new. However, it is an opportunity for different agencies to come together to relook at the existing policies and how they could be modernised to enhance children safeguarding.
“Our Children’s Act has been in place since 1982 and now we are in 2024, so it is high time we review the structures in place to make it stronger,” stated Mr Hoareau, who felt that sometimes the schools’ voices were not well represented.
The training ended yesterday, when 25 human resource officers followed a component focusing on safer recruitment when employing people to work with children.
Photos by Kurtrine Albert
