The case two child protection and child labour programmes.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of concerns were raised with regards to its impact on children, their families and the organisations working with them. Even though the evidence on COVID-19 has increased, most of the data comes from Europe and North America. There is still a gap in low-income countries.
Our partners in Central America, working on child protection and elimination of child labour, had to adapt to the needs that emerged because of COVID-19. Measures imposed to prevent the spread of the virus, such as quarantines and lockdowns, can have a significant impact on mental health outcomes of children and their families.
Organisations had to develop and introduce an adapted plan for the delivery of services and activities, which would be able to support national health prevention strategies – where available – and at the same time mitigate the negative secondary impacts on the most vulnerable children, adolescents, and youth. Their adaptations are important sources of knowledge that can help understand how services reacted to emergencies and develop flexible and tailored solutions under extremely challenging circumstances.
For these reasons, ICDI decided to conduct a study on the experiences and views of service providers, children, and families in Nicaragua and Guatemala to shed light on how the pandemic has affected them and how they have adapted to it.
