Gede Foundation participated in a 3-day training on “Children and Adults-at-Risk Safeguarding Workshop” from 18th to 20th June 2019, in Abuja. The workshop was organized by Christoffel-Blindermission (CBM), also known as Christian Blind Mission, for its partners in Ghana and Nigeria. The training aimed to build partners capacity in formulating safeguarding policies, and ways which they could be implemented, as this is central to CBM’s Ethics and Code of Conducts in service delivery.
The workshop was declared opened by CBM’s Country Director in Nigeria, Bright Ekweremadu, whose keynote address welcomed participants and also gave directions on the utilization of the outcomes of the workshop.
A combination of presentations and group works helped in the delivery of the workshop contents.
Sessions were led by Jackie Kwesiga from CBM Uganda and Doris K, CBM Togo which focused on the following areas i) the value of safeguarding, ii) the scope of protection and safeguarding, iii) child abuse and its symptoms , iv) simulation of incident management, v) the concept of adults at risks and what constitute abuse, vi) developing a safeguarding policy, vii) safeguarding in health programmes, viii) programme specific risks to children and adults, and, xi) safeguarding risk assessment.
At the end, participants showed understanding in various sessions as demonstrated in the outcomes of group works where samples of Risk Assessment Templates and organizational safeguarding Plan of Action were produced. It is expected that participants will organize a step down training to colleagues and, subsequently, mainstream safeguarding into its policies and programme areas.