Training on children and adolescents in refugee situations

A regional training and capacity building initiative for humanitarian workers in Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia has started in Sierra Leone under the "Action for the Rights of Children" (ARC) programme. It is expected to cover the other two countries by December. "The initiative aims to increase the capacity of field staff to protect and care for children and adolescents from the beginning to the end of conflict, from emergency interventions to durable solutions," according to William Kollie of Save the Children (United Kingdom). The project - a joint effort of the Save the Children Alliance and the United Nations refugee agency, supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - will involve training of humanitarian workers in the three West African countries over a period of six months. Some 25 trainers have started the training in Sierra Leone in a bid to improve their ability to address issues of children in refugee situations and adolescents affected by armed conflict. "We have developed training modules and shall initially focus on trainers at community level," said Kollie, Save the Children-UK's programme manager for social protection and welfare in Liberia. "The modules also address the issue of abuse of refugee children, including sexual abuse." The training will cover international legal standards and principles, fundamental principles of child and adolescent development, situation analysis and community mobilisation. Critical issues to be addressed include: unaccompanied children, child soldiers, disability, education (including landmine awareness and girl's education), child and adolescent preventive health, exploitation and abuse, and durable solutions. The ARC programme was developed following a study by Graca Machel, expert to the UN Secretary-General on the impact of armed conflict on children, which called for field humanitarian activities to address the specific problems of children affected by armed conflict. "The ARC directly links training to field operations and reinforces the child and adolescent components of existing emergency training programmes," Kollie added.