Challenges and opportunities

The pandemic has put safeguarding inside families to the test. The lockdown has put to his paces the parent-child relationship of love and collaboration.  It is important to insist on the need for positive parenting.

It is not easy for parents to fulfil their duties as mother or father in supporting children in their schoolwork and to combine this with teleworking. Stress increases, feelings of incompetence grow, and frustration can lead to mistreatment and abuse. The most serious outcome of this situation is that children may normalise ill-treatment and abuse in their own relationships.

Child protection networks and support services play an important role in ensuring that children can report or denounce situations of abuse through accessible channels. This helps to prevent domestic and interpersonal mistreatment and violence.

Confronted with these situations of risk and lack of protection, some testimonies from families and children are an expression of how these weeks at home have allowed them to rediscover themselves as a family.

It has been a learning experience having to share small spaces and for all to take responsibility for household tasks. Boys and girls appreciated doing their school and home chores together, as well as spending time in recreation and conversation.

This is an extract of an article by the TA International Advisory Panel on Safeguarding Policies. May 2020. You can access the article attached here.