"World Day for Prevention from Child Abuse"
06-14-2017
On June 6thof every year, Jordan marks the World Day for Prevention from Child Abuse which is an occasion for assessing national progress achieved in this area. The marking comes in the framework of preserving the cohesion of the family, and in translation of the visions of HM King Abdullah and HM Queen Rania Al-Abdullah in placing interest on child and family issues and putting them at the top of national agenda and policies.
On this occasion, NCFA Secretary-General Fadel Al-Hmoud pointed out that NCFA is working on several programs and projects related to protecting the child and providing a safe and abuse-free environment. In this respect, the Council is currently conducting a survey on Support Helplines for Families and Children to obtain an overall account of Jordan's experience in providing child protection services through telephone lines that are allocated for this purpose.
The survey aims to identify bottlenecks of the Helpline project at the national and institutional levels, and put forward new concepts for the development and improvement of the Helplines to ensure their promotion and sustainability which will ultimately contribute to strengthening policies and systems of child and family protection in Jordan.
The Secretary-General also noted that the Helpines experience is relatively new in the Arab Region and in Jordan and that several national institutions are now working in the field to provide hotline counseling services and address complaints related to child and family affairs. The study included 15 helplines in Jordan, four of which are governmental and the rest nongovernmental.
The study, as Al-hmoud indicated, has shown that landlines and cellular phone calls as well as personal visits by children and their parents were the most frequent channels of communication used in obtaining services, reaching a percentage of 83%, followed by website visits and e-mailing at a percentage of 11%. In terms of the methods of awareness applied by institutions to promote and advocate for their services, the study has shown that awareness sessions and delivery of services to citizens at their locations ranked first at 24 per cent, followed by awareness pamphlets and brochures at 23%. Advocacy campaigns that accompany the launch of the helpines came third at a percentage of 16%. As for awareness via electronic website and social networks, the percentage reached 14%, 9% via television and radio interviews, and 7% via ads on television, radio and daily newspapers.
Al-Hmoud stressed the importance of institutionalizing and rolling out the work of the helplines at a national level, and the need to allocate support lines per social segment i.e. child and family helpines, and women and family helpines. He also underlined the need for a support partnership network that brings together all service-providing entities, and an oversight body that regulates the work of these lines to ensure the delivery of high quality services in accordance with scientific and practical standards.
The last few years witnessed several incidents of child deaths resulting from family violence, Al-Hmoud noted. Hence, as part of the follow-up of the National Team for Family Protection (which works under the umbrella of NCFA) on such cases, it formed fact-finding committees to identify loopholes in the management procedures. After studying the cases, committees' findings highlighted a lack of coordination and follow-up among the service-providing institutions as well as evidences of non-compliance to the methodology outlined by the National Framework for Family Protection against Violence. This demanded revisiting the National Framework document to take stock of the practical implementation of the framework by national institutions to ensure the accuracy and clarity of their roles and to enhance the participatory work among all actors so as to prepare an updated version of the framework, with a view to guarantee the delivery of effective services that fulfill the needs of family violence cases. Hence, under the supervision of the National Team for Family Protection and funded by UN organizations in Jordan (UNICEF, UNFPA and UNRWA), NCFA is currently preparing an updated version of the National Framework that will address all impediments and gaps that are found in the procedures of the national family protection system; strengthen partnerships among institutions; consolidate follow-up and commitment of national institutions to the framework; and finally set up an operational plan of action that helps institutions implement the framework and translate it into an institutional working methodology at the intra-institutional level and at the level of coordination among partner institutions.
Moreover, Al-Hmoud indicated that NCFA, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development and the Health Care Accreditation Council (HCAC), is working on a project on the development of accreditation and quality assurance criteria for shelter homes which offer services for children in need of social protection. The project includes developing criteria, procedures and measures that will govern and determine the quality and level of programs and services offered by these shelters to children beneficiaries, taking into account the nature and characteristics of the target group, the rights-based services, the nature and characteristics of the location and the efficiency and effectiveness of shelter staff.
The criteria document will cover areas related to delivery of services, infrastructure, human rights, programs, services and policies of service delivery, case management methods, and other organizational matters related to shelter homes including human resources and systems of leadership and administration. Upon the adoption of the criteria, a training program will be held for relevant personnel from the Ministry of Social Development and other relevant stakeholders on how to apply the criteria in the homes in a manner that delivers quality services to beneficiaries, Al-Hmoud added.
The Council is currently reconsidering a set of legislation on medical jurisdiction to amend them so as to include the mother's consent with regard to performing surgical operations on her children in cases of emergency. In doing so, NCFA seeks to find attainable solutions that can ensure the delivery of services to children in need of protection and care, whether by changing legislation, medical procedures or protection measures.
