Protect vulnerable children from all forms of violence
Children in Zambia continue to face abuse, neglect and violence. Almost 43% of girls aged 13-17 have reported experiencing one or more forms of violence, with more than half of these cases happening near or within their homes. 59% of girls have a child before the age of 19, and 31% are married by the age of 18. There are an estimated 13,000 children living on the streets and 20,000 child-headed households. And almost 33,000 migrants living in Zambia are under the age of 19. We aim for families, communities and government services to protect vulnerable children from all forms of violence in all settings.
Our child protection work will:
Support resilient girls and boys to protect themselves and their peers.
Support at-risk mothers, fathers, caregivers and communities to be able to provide quality, gender-sensitive care to children.
Support the government, communities, and children to prevent unsafe migration through the provision of preventative, quality care and support interventions.
Support refugee children and their families to receive adequate support and protection.
Build child safeguarding and safe programming capacities, policies and programmes among government partners, civil society and communities.
OUR FOCUS
We are targeting the most marginalized and deprived children in Western, Muchinga, Copperbelt, Eastern, Northern and Luapula provinces. Our focus will be vulnerable girls and boys who are:
Migrating in Zambia from rural to urban areas.
Migrating from other countries into Zambia or using Zambia as a transit country.
At risk of separation or already separated from their families and survivors of violence and abuse
OUR APPROACH
BE THE VOICE
- Advocate for increased investment in child protection systems.
- Engage with government ministries to ensure that first-line migration officials have the skills and knowledge they need to ensure children are protected.
- Continue to build a strong advocacy strategy around our child protection in emergencies work.
- Advocate to help end sexual and gender-based violence against children.
INNOVATION
- Conduct operational research in order to understand the protective and risk factors in family preservation and gender dynamics of reintegration.
- Continue our Parenting Without Violence work and gather evidence on its impact.
- Work closely with other partners to pilot integrated case management tools and support a digital case management system for all vulnerable children within the communities where we work.
ACHIEVE RESULTS AT SCALE
- Strengthen the government's capacity to implement the legal and policy framework and provision of quality services.
- Support parents and communities to eliminate physical punishment at home and at community levels, and work with
- community child protection structures and mechanisms to prevent and respond to violence against children.
- Promote training of adolescent girls and boys in resiliency, life skills and access to sexual reproductive health and rights, and raise awareness around unsafe migration and trafficking.
BUILD PARTNERSHIPS
We will establish strategic partnerships with:
Traditional leaders and engage men and boys to help end sexual and gender-based violence against girls and boys.
Children, host communities, civil society organizations and government ministries.
Cooperating partners to guarantee the optimization of skills and resources and avoid duplication of efforts.
OUR PROJECTS
Chimau is 13 years old and lives in Western Province in Zambia with her mother, Inonge (38), her brother Lawrence (7) and her grandmother Mary (68). The region has been hit with the country’s worst drought in 20 years, leaving Chimau and her family – who rely on growing their own food to survive – in a desperate situation with very little to eat. The rainy season in Zambia normally stretches from October to March, but during the 2023/24 rainy season there have been intense dry spells and Inonge says when the rains started they planted their crops, but then the rains suddenly stopped. Her ground nut crops have failed, and her maize crops – which were due to be harvested in May – have already shrivelled up and died. Inonge also used to do small jobs on people’s farms weeding and cutting shrubs, but even these jobs are hard to find now as everyone has been impacted by the drought. The only occasional work she can find is washing clothes at the nearby school and mission. Chimau says they only eat one meal a day, and that hunger is impacting on her studies. She says she feels sick and gets a headache. In class, she can’t concentrate because she’s thinking about food and falls asleep. Seven out of 10 provinces in Zambia have been impacted by the intense drought and the government has declared a national emergency. More than 1 million children are facing severe food shortages and hunger as the El Niño induced dry spell kills crops and dries up water sources. Sacha Myers / Save the Children
CHILD SENSITIVE & SOCIAL PROTECTION
Rosemary* is a Nigerian girl who arrived in Italy when she was sixteen (now she is twenty) by the will of her original family, where she was abused on a regular basis and treated as a slave by her mother, who threatened to withdraw her from school if she hadn’t hard worked, as requested, at home or in the field. When she arrived in Italy she was immediately forced to be a prostitute. After almost one year being a prostitute in Italy, she was reported to the anti-trafficking body by an Italian man, a client, willing to help her, and in this way her path out of the exploitation system got started. The girl is now supported by Vie d’Uscita, a project by Save the Children, which has accompanied her along her path, through a recovery from trauma, learning Italian and self-independence orientation program. Sara Mignogna per Save the Children
JOINT-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
Dickson and Clement benefit from Sponsorship programming in Zambia. Kelvin Mulenga/Save the Children
CHILDREN ON THE MOVE
