Child Protection

Save the Children in Rwanda and Burundi

Save the Children has been working in Rwanda since 1994 in partnership with the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and local stakeholders to promote a bright future for children. SC has experience working in all 30 districts across the country. The main areas of focus are education, child protection, child rights governance and health and nutrition in humanitarian and development settings. SC sets out to address all forms of violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation against children by providing responsive and preventative services that are inclusive, culturally appropriate and gender sensitive. SC works to achieve this by supporting the strengthening of child protection systems in collaboration with the GoR though institutions such as the National Child Development Agency (NCDA) and various other sub-national and local structures.

Save the Children continues to implement child protection interventions in Mahama Camp. We provide case management for survivors of abuse including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) using the Steps to Protect common approach. In addition, SC uses the Parenting without Violence common approach to support the placement of unaccompanied and separated children in alternative care by upskilling foster parents. SC delivers diverse prevention activities aimed at increasing social wellbeing, reducing distress through child and youth friendly spaces (CFS/YFS) and home-based recreation and empowering children, families and communities to protect and promote child rights.

In 2015, Save the Children began operating in Burundi. Through our sub-office, SC delivers protection services and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response across five refugee camps in Muyinga, Ruyigi and Bujumbura. SC also mobilizes resources and provides child protection services to disaster-affected children and their families displaced by recurrent flooding of Lake Tanganyika.