Children in emergency situations need special attention - Photo: T. Schytz Larsen

After the disputed December 2007 election results in Kenya, thousands of people were displaced and many children became separated from their parents and guardians. The Department of Children's Services, together with the Kenya Red Cross, quickly took control of the situation and organised for many children to be taken care of in temporary accommodation, including at the SOS Children's Village Nairobi. Nevertheless, some children escaped the official net and became prey to child traffickers or similar. In order to be prepared, should a similar situation recur, the Department of Children's Services organised a three-day training workshop in Nairobi, entitled Child Protection and Interventions for Separated Children.

Working with partners

The objectives of the workshop were to increase the participants' knowledge on different aspects of separated children, and to equip participants with skills to register separated children using inter-agency registration forms. Participants were drawn from various non-governmental organisations, child care institutions and government institutions active in the care and protection of children.

Training topics covered: children separated from their parents or caregivers, causes and prevention of separation, identification and registration with an emphasis on communication techniques for different age groups, care of children in emergencies, tracing of families, and sexual exploitation and abuse of separated children. In addition, forms used by various agencies in the registration of the children were reviewed, with the aim of standardising them for submission to a central database which will coordinate information gathering, tracing efforts, roles of agencies and complementary points of partnership which work in the best interests of the separated children and their families.

The way forward

Participants concurred that there were many grey areas with regards to preparedness to handle cases of separated children both within and outside internally displaced persons' camps but committed themselves to producing both short and long term strategies for child care and protection, learning from the best practices highlighted in the current situation. Positive reference was made to the SOS Children's Villages Kenya's swift and organised action in taking in separated children in the children's villages, good documentation practices and cooperation with partner agencies in working in the best interests of separated children under unprecedented circumstances. It was agreed that there is more need for consistent inter-agency collaboration in both emergency and non-emergency situations if the effective implementation of the Children's Act is to be realised.

The workshop, which was one of a series being held across the country to build the capacity of stakeholders participating in child care and protection under the auspices of the Department of Children's Services, was realised with the support of UNICEF and Save the Children UK.

Article written by Lorraine Otieno, SOS Children's Villages Kenya.