Child-friendly spaces
Child-friendly spaces provide vital safe areas where children can learn and play
To date Plan has set up 30 child-friendly spaces in Croix-des-Bouquets and Jacmel to provide children with physically safe areas where they can learn, play and be children, in the midst of often chaotic surroundings. Our child-friendly spaces activities have benefited around 5,000 children.
Providing a safe place for children is absolutely key to protect them from any harm as well as to regain a sense of normalcy.
Trained Plan staff and volunteers offer structured activities and games in such places, which will help children to continue learning and help them to come to terms with the effects of the disaster on their lives.
Child-friendly spaces are:
- Only set up after Plan has worked with the community to assess the needs of their children
- Inclusive - accessible to all girls and boys, with a special focus on helping the most affected or vulnerable
- Physically safe - sited away from hazards such as main roads and near to water points, toilets and family areas
- An opportunity for Plan and the community to work together to support the emotional wellbeing of children, by offering psychosocial support
- A place to play and learn in a caring, stable environment
- Managed within the community - children and women are actively involved in planning the spaces and activities, together with specially selected and trained community members
- In synergy with the local environment, culture and language, through the use of local resources
- Sustainable - involving the local community and local organisations in the initial assessment and in planning and running the space
- Part of a holistic approach - children and families also receive care, advice and information on basic needs such as nutrition, health and hygiene, and have access to emotional and psychological support
- Part of Plan’s wider child protection strategy.
Who runs the activities in the child-friendly spaces?
Plan has trained local volunteers, such as students, youth workers, nurses or teachers, to run the activities in the spaces. Volunteers have often worked with children before, and are open to listening to children and involving them in decisions.
All volunteers working with children are trained in Plan’s Child Protection Policy as well as in supporting the emotional wellbeing of children.
Volunteers are not counsellors and do not offer psychiatric interventions or individual counselling sessions. However, they work closely with Plan partners, to identify children in need of professional support, and to refer children on to these services, run by Plan’s partners and other specialist organisations.
The work done by volunteers is reinforced by the presence and onsite support of Plan Haiti staff, trained social workers and community-based psychosocial workers. When needed, psychologists provide additional support.
Why are child-friendly spaces important?
Children are particularly vulnerable in the aftermath of a disaster, both emotionally and physically. In Plan’s child-friendly spaces, Plan staff and volunteers talk to families about keeping children safe and supporting their emotional recovery. They explain about our child protection policy, and offer advice and support on who to talk to if they are worried that a child may be at risk of abuse.
Disasters often mean that children’s rights are forgotten, neglected, exploited or violated. Child-friendly spaces provide a focus for children, families and communities to learn about child rights, such as health and protection.
