Background

The World Report on Violence against Children ended any lingering doubts on the pervasive nature of violence and abuse perpetrated against children world over. It confirmed that this violence is neither place nor context specific. It cuts across cultures, geographical boundaries, race, and religion and occurs virtually in all settings including homes, school, institutes of care and detention, workplaces among the environments where children can be found. Further, this study was emphatic that violence against children is not in any way justifiable, nor is it inevitable[1], and pointed out the urgency with which state governments need to act to end impunity, respond to abuse and prevent its occurrence in the first instance.    Children who took part in the study also called for an end to this violence, and for adults and governments to continually uphold the rights of children on the same scale will all other human rights. In particular, avenues for reporting of abuse by children themselves and support services were noted to be glaringly absent or inadequate in a majority of the countries. Most abuse incidences go unreported for various reasons. Children fear reprisal either by their perpetrators, family members or the community in general and prefer not to report. Even where a child may be willing to report, they often lack the information on where to report, what to expect and notably the means necessary to do so. The conspiracy of silence on child abuse and violence continues unabated for these reasons.  There is cause for concern and need for action at multiple levels of our society. It is clear now that the long term economic, social and developmental consequences of violence on children are quite significant. Ultimately, failing to prevent and contain violence against children is more expensive than the management of the outcomes both to the society and the health system.[2]

[1] World Report on Violence Against Children, Paulo Sergio, Independent Expert for the United Nations Secretary General's Study on Violence Against Children, 2006

[2] World Report on Violence and   Health, WHO, 2002\

Addressing Violence Against Children in Kenya

Kenya, with a population of over 17 million persons below the age of 18 has not been spared. Having participated in the violence study, the country statistics are no better than the global picture painted.[1] Although the African Child policy Forum report of 2008 on the wellbeing of the African child ranked Kenya sixth out of 52 African states, compared to world standards the Kenya government is far from meeting its human rights obligations to children. The index is constructed based on health, education, budgetary commitments, access to services, and ratification of international conventions on child rights as well as political indicators. Granted, programs targeted to ending violence against children may need to go beyond the above listed indicators, and often will need a closer interrogation of the justice systems, and analysis of the relationship between these justice institutions and others that have a close link to childhood such as the home environment which is where most abuse occurs. Secondly, it the analysis has to objectively consider how children access and participate in the programs designed to protect them. The best interest of the child and their opinions are critical in addressing this problem. If children's voices do not get heard, then chances are that the interventions may not meet their needs adequately.  Recommendation number 8 of the UN study on Violence against children (2006) is particularly profound, underscoring the importance of a reporting mechanism as key to fighting child abuse. It stated that governments needed to; Create accessible and child friendly reporting systems and services. I recommend that states should establish safe, well publicized and confidential, accessible mechanisms for children, representatives and others to report violence against children. All children including those in care and justice intuitions should be aware of the existence of a complaint mechanism. The mechanism of complaint such as telephone helplines through which children can report violence, speak to trained counselors…… should be established and creation of other ways of reporting violence through new technologies should be considered.  It is against this background that Childline Kenya, works, with the aim of challenging the existence of violence against children in the country and advocating for better services for children to protect them and uphold their rights. The organization aims to use ICT to promote this overarching goal. The organization does this through a 24 hour helpline in conjunction with the Government of Kenya, The ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development- Department of Children's Services. The child helpline and its referral partners offer counseling, legal advice and representation, child abuse case investigations, home visits and public education on child rights and parenting skills for prevention of abuse among other services. The helpline uses mobile as well as fixed line telephony.    Although the helpline has been in operation for over two years now, having started with a fixed telephone, the additional of mobile telephones usage to the helpline services has increased the demand for the service by 2,000%. This indicates the amenable nature of mobile phones for solutions to social issues.  

At the global level, helplines have proved to be useful to children, and data from the 67 helplines indicates over 10.5 million children contact helplines annually for various reasons.[2] At the child helpline in Kenya, the number of calls averages 15,000 per month and doubles during school holidays and vacations.

Most helplines use the telephone but new technologies that are now being piloted include the chat facility for countries with efficient internet connections, as well as the use of Short message services (SMS) where children can text and get information or a specific intervention.  

[1] All country responses to the UN study on Violence Against Children (2006). http://www.ohchr.org

[2] Child Helplines International is a global movement for Child helplines globally

Why Children Call Helplines

  Reasons for contact (2007) World(N=2.8 m)Africa(N=80,744)Abuse, violence, commercial exploitation14.2%34.7%School-family-peer-related *30.5%19.7%Health related **18.8%28.8%Sexuality10.4%8.9%Information request22.5%5.7%Other ***3.6%2.2%  100%100%*     Including homelessness**   HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, differently-abled children, psycho-social &               physical health*** Legal matters, discrimination

Source, Connecting to Children, 2006, Child Helpline International (CHI).

Our Proposed Project  

 Telecommunication and generally ICT related services have long been availed to adults, and need to now be expanded for children to benefit as well. The greatest improvement in the lives of people in Africa has come through ICT and more specifically in Kenya, the use of mobile phones for economic, social and even political benefits. As demonstrated from the helpline data, the benefits can be expanded to reach more children. It is for this reason that Childline Kenya is proposing this project.  Of the 15,000 calls per month at the national helpline in Kenya receives, we intervene in nearly 30% of the cases, which we consider to be serious. However, there is a bulk of calls that we are unable to effectively respond to due to either poor connection in certain geographical locations, fear by the victims to talk to strangers and inability to access the child helpline number 116 quickly due to congestion. The table below gives more information on the extent of the problem.

Calls Received Table

CALLS RECEIVED AT THE HELPLINE FROM JANUARY TO DECEMBER 2008

NATUREJANFEBMARAPRMAYJUNJULAUGSEPTOCTNOVDECTOTALResponded to calls                          Child neglect/abandoned/lost/ abduction9371442384664034952572592602872828Physical abuse357433914814311062747675785Sexual abuse318223015311210286916564737teenage pregnancy            1319        32School related101415133160241001861641331711227Custody and maintenance03032571521461678911396131986Early/forced marriage030261646434728392945322Emotional abuse211101516181212121725141Child labour0103238108859560473743546Child prostitution      2    49212626Child in conflict with the law/runaway child      3    5871881867Street child            16074    27Female genital mutilation            41145171152Physical/mental disability            50161521654Child trafficking          91614432553Counseling49436738240071673114586841056111911367841Follow-ups and updates20262762756785139101834874807Financial support      23810366358548272581452302180Information/inquiry183491888118712861290206082911531126154611508Sub Total11413422320172265377434775294246133953182388330219                            Confidence building calls                          1. Answered calls                          Others (line testing, greetings, wrong number, etc)95199192135043781919273032661335212619433229227622. Attempted calls                          3. Pranks/Blanks/Silent and incomplete276157433127551161962716,14618,09722,01820,91211,31925,824138,725GRAND TOTAL48549084816122780415320223532665725814264331644432936191706

Increasing Access

The area marked in red indicates there is still a problem of access which needs to be improved to make the helpline services a reality for as many children as possible in Kenya.  Our aim is to serve as many children as possible and therefore the fact that 70% of our callers do not get the necessary assistance they may require challenges the helpline to diversify means of accessing child protection services by children.

 One way to do this is to integrate the use of mobile games for learning and SMS facility into the current national helpline 116 existing products.  We aim to do this by first conducting research into the best options for children to use mobile phones for their own safety, to demand services and also acquire information for life skills development e.g self awareness, negotiation skills as well as staying safe both at home and in school or the community.

Proposed activities

• To design a research project jointly with an ICT and academic institution that has a strong research and child psychology faculty
• Based on the research, design programs, content and material that can be used for different age groups as an add-on program to the national helpline 116 services. This may be in form of mobile games as well as SMS.
• As part of the research outcomes, develop a long term program for mobile use in child protection which the helpline will then implement over a 3-5 year period

 Some examples of how mobiles have been used for human rights causes have strengthened our conviction that it can be made possible for children as well. Some of the examples are indicated below: Example 1 in Congo:   The example combines radio and mobile phones to educate the public about their rights as citizens.   The Interactive Radio for Justice, a radio programme in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that answers listeners' questions about justice issues sent by SMS. Ethan Zuckerman points out that sending questions via SMS allows for anonymity, an important point when your question is: "Are soldiers allowed to stay at my house and eat my food without paying for it?"

Example 2 in Kenya: Ushind Organization a national NGO uses SMS to monitor violence in the public arena, and their services were instrumental in dealing with violence during the post election violence in Janaury 2008 after the botched elections. A website called Ushahidi-- Ushahidi-- allows people to report post-election violence in Kenya via SMS or email. The information then appears on a Google mash-up on the website and is verified and utilized by NGOs and civil society organization to gain commitment from government to end violence. Clients subscribed to the two main mobile telephone service providers can access the service by sending a SMS to short code 6007.