Every Call Matters; Why Child Helplines in Africa are CRITICAL in protecting children
Presented By:
This session explores the critical role of child helplines in strengthening child protection systems across Africa, with a focus on Uganda, Tanzania, and Somalia.
It highlights how accessible, well-resourced, and integrated Child Helpline services serve as a frontline mechanism for preventing, reporting, and responding to violence, abuse, and neglect of children. Despite their importance, child helplines remain underfunded and weakly integrated within national child protection systems.
Through multi-country perspectives, the session will examine practical approaches to strengthening coordination between child helplines and government sectors including social welfare, justice, health, education, and law enforcement. Participants will explore scalable solutions for financing, data integration, and system strengthening. The discussion will emphasize actionable strategies to ensure that every call from a child results in timely and effective protection, reinforcing the role of child helplines as a cornerstone of national child protection frameworks.
Speakers
- Michael Marwa - Regional Rep, AFRICA - CHI, Tanzania
- John Mugisha - Senior Probation & Welfare Officer, Uganda
- Mohamed Abdi Ali - Director - Child Rights Department, Government of Somalia
Session Aims
- To strengthen and scale national child helplines as accessible and effective entry points for integrated child protection services.
- To promote the establishment of formalized referral pathways between child helplines and key government sectors, including social welfare, police, health, and education systems.
- To enhance interoperability and coordination of child helpline data systems for improved case management, tracking, reporting, and multi-sectoral response.
- To build the capacity of frontline responders to deliver timely, child-centred, and coordinated support services for children.
