Child Helpline International

Child Helpline International is a global network of 178 child helplines in 146 countries (as of November 2018). A child helpline is a telecommunication and outreach service on behalf of children and young people. As of 2017, Child Helpline International is ranked in the top 100 NGOs worldwide by NGO Advisor on measurements including transparency, sustainability and impact.

History 

In 1989, Child Helpline International founder Jeroo Billimoria worked closely with street children in India as a social worker. She gave the children her telephone number and told them to call if they needed any help, after which she received a large volume of contacts. Billimoria realised that these children needed someone to speak to and assist them. The idea of a toll-free number emerged and she set up Childline India - India's first and only child helpline.

Childline India's approach was to have volunteers who answered the phone and who would go directly to the child in need. All phones available for public use could dial Childline India, toll-free, in order to help children find aid in places where an emergency shelter may not be located. The volunteers kept a log of the calls, which became an important source of data for the creation of child protection policies, thus placing these helplines at the centre of child protection policy.

After its success in India, Billimoria explored the idea of creating a global network of child helplines, which could provide technical assistance to each other, and in countries who wanted to start or expand their own helplines. This led to a meeting, held in Amsterdam in 2003, and attended by representatives from 49 child helplines from around the globe. At this meeting, Child Helpline International was launched.

Principle and Mission 

The work of Child Helpline International is firmly grounded in the principle of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which highlights the children's rights to privacy and protection from harm.

The stated mission of the Child Helpline International network is to provide a forum for information sharing and mutual support, assistance with advocacy and lobbying, promoting the rights of children and child helplines as a medium of assistance to children, and to support the initiation and development of child helplines in countries which do not have such services.

Operations 

Child Helpline International is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Executive Director of Child Helpline International is Patrick Krens. Child Helpline International is a membership-based organization with 178 members in 146 countries and territories around the world (as at November 2018). In 2015, the child helplines who are members of Child Helpline International had received over 20 million contacts from children and young people in need for care and protection.

Knowledge Exchange Platform 

A key role of the network is to provide platform for knowledge transfers between the members. 
Types of knowledge exchange activities are:
 Peer Exchanges: Members of the network learn from one another through visits, sharing solutions, comparing expertise and experiences. 
 Peer Evaluations: Member organizations compare and evaluate good practices, governance and operations of their own child helplines with other members.
 Trainings and Workshops: Member organizations learn from trainings and workshops to make sure that each child helpline stay abreast of changing times and needs and possess the up-to-date skills
 International and Regional Consultations: International and Regional Consultations are biennial events held in alternating years in which the members, partners, and stakeholders come together to find common ground, report and reflect on collective experiences from the existing child helplines.

References

External links
 
 Child Helpline International Annual Report 2015 
 https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/Jeroo-Billimoria
 NGO Advisor 

Category:Child abuse-related organizations
Category:Child welfare
Category:Children's rights organizations
Category:Crisis hotlines
Category:International nongovernmental organizations
Category:International organisations based in the Netherlands
Category:Youth rights organizations