Childline Botswana attended regional Child Helpline International (CHI) Conference in Namibia, 18th – 20th June 2008

Childline senior social worker Mareile Nganunu-Kroening attended the Child Helpline International (CHI) Conference in Windhoek, Namibia, from the 18th to the 20th of June 2008. During this conference African child helplines came together to share experiences, to discuss issues of relevance and come up with regional plans. It was truly an eye-opening and enriching experience to meet both more established and flourishing helplines, as well as those partners who are still in the process of setting up their lines.

We got introduced to international quality standards which will ensure that we serve the public in the best interest of the children, and take into consideration relevant child protection issues. We also had the honour to meet with a representative from Leaf Technology, a company based in South Africa, who generously shared with us their computerized data collection system, which was especially developed for Childline South Africa and is utilized in all provincial call centres in South Africa.

This programme will help lift our helpline to a new level in that it will make both case registrations, follow ups, referrals and the collation of statistics easier. We also met in teams to help the teams who are currently developing helplines in their countries to design annual plans and budgets.

There was true exchange and mutual support that I experienced during this network; it was inspiring, and it afforded me to come home with a clear plan in as to how we can scale up the Botswana crisisline to ensure that more children will be able to access it and benefit from it. We currently are looking for technical and financial support with the establishment of our new call centre.