[Focus Areas] Child Protection | World Vision Singapore

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Every child deserves to live, grow and thrive. Yet every year, more than 1 billon children around the world experience violence that steals their dignity, their futures, and too often, their lives¹.

Children caught in conflict face many dangers, becoming refugees in unfamiliar land, getting separated from their families and growing up not knowing what it is like to be a child.

Millions of others are denied the chance to go to school and reach their full potential. Young boys are forced into often dangerous hard labour, while young girls face sexual assault, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation and child marriage.

This violence threatens the survival, health and education of children. It erodes a country’s human and social capital and tears at the fabric of society.

¹ UNICEF 2021

Key Challenges

Millions of children around the world are trapped by violence, conflict, child labour, child marriage and child trafficking. These traumatic events rob children of their childhoods, future and potential.

Child Labour

For the first time in two decades, the number of children involved in child labour rose to 160 million at the beginning of 2020, with 9 million more children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19. This accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. Almost half of them are in hazardous work that risks their health and development.

Child Violence

1 in 2 children or 1 billion children suffer some form of violence each year

Child Marriage

Before COVID-19 hit, more than 100 million girls were expected to be married before they turned 18 in the next decade. Now, up to 10 million more girls are at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic.

Child Refugees

Nearly 1 in 3 children living outside their country of birth are refugees.

World Vision’s Work in Child Protection

Children need a safe and secure environment to grow up well.

Safeguarding children and their well-being lie at the heart of all that we do at World Vision.

A holistic approach that empowers families and communities to protect children from harm is essential. We engage with all those who have a responsibility to protect children, from parents, faith communities and care providers to local and government officials.

Our interventions focus on improving laws and accountability, increasing social services and support, catalysing behaviour and attitude change, and strengthening child resilience.

We protect:

Children in Crisis: Helping the Most Vulnerable Children Survive, Recover and Build a Future

We go to places others cannot reach, meeting urgent needs and staying to find solutions. Your gift can help children survive in the world’s most dangerous places.

Children in the Cities: Helping to Create Just Cities for All Children

People and poverty are moving to cities at a scale and speed that poses serious risks and challenges to the well-being of children. Your gift can help children have access to basic needs and be protected from street violence.

Children of Climate Change: Helping to Create a Sustainable World for Our Children

The world’s poorest have contributed very little to climate change yet are often the most exposed to its devastating impacts. Your gift can help create a more sustainable world for our children.

Give Child Protection

Crisis & Disaster Response

"Having clean water is the biggest blessing. Suha is so happy whenever she washes her hands with soap. With clean water available, even the taste of our crops has changed."

Essa*, 37, Syrian father referring to his 2-year-old daughter

*name has been changed to protect his privacy

Tackle Urban Poverty

"My mother lost her job because of the pandemic. I was unable to pay my college fees. My mother had earlier borrowed money from friends. I was about to drop out of my Bachelor of Commerce programme when World Vision came to the rescue. I am so grateful for the chance to continue my studies and take my exams."

Evangeline, a 2nd-year university student from a poor area in Chennai, India

Stories of Child Protection

The Walk 10-Year-Old Maybelle No Longer Needs to Take

Thanks to a new water system, Maybelle no longer misses school or walks long distances. Clean, reliable water is now just steps from home -...

2 women with basin of water in their head

When Water Hurts

Water takes up most of 8-year-old Mervis’s day - and most of her childhood too. She carries 20 litres on her head, heavier than...

More Than A Job: The Men Who Drill For Hope

This Labour Day, we honour World Vision’s drilling team – skilled, selfless, and steadfast. Their work brings more than water; it brings life,...