In the Protection, ECW supports the general protection, child protection and GBV prevention through various awareness and participatory policy led approaches. In child protection, ECW is working with street working children, separated and unaccompanied children, parenting skills, psychosocial support, friendly spaces, prosecution, legal advocacy and health hygiene and skills development programs. In the GBV, ECW supports assistance through multisector response (legal, safety, health and psychosocial), behavior change awareness, dignity protection and support.


Child Protection Experience:

ECW administers two policies i.e. Child Safety Policy, and, Child Protection Policy. The first policy is specifically designed for ECW programs, staff and all associated parties/partners to avoid any action or task which hurt or produce or create space for child protection concerns, and resulted in violating the rights of children. The second policy is designed to protect the well beings of children from the different abuses, discrimination, inaccessibility, cultural and societal issues, through applying the national and international standards and procedures. This policy is put in practice through executing the strategic goal: Child Education and Protection. Under this goal, ECW is working; under Priority-1 to deliver education services (EiE, CBE, ALE, ECCD), and Priority-2 to ensure protection for the vulnerable children and build Intervention to put in action Child Rights Standards within development and humanitarian programs for effective child protection, development and participation.

Past Child Protection Interventions:

In child protection sector, ECW has implemented more or less 42 projects for the protection of child especially girls in the following sectors:

• Child Rights Protection
• Community based child protection mechanism/CBCPM
• Elimination of violence against girls
• Ending Early Marriages
• Advocacy on Bacha Baazi
• Setting up and capacities of 44 CSOs task force for ending Bacha Baazi
• Legal protection for children
• Legal literacy for girls
• Elimination of Traditional Practices
• Advocacy on child rights with provincial and national authorities
• Child Friendly Spaces for children
• Psychosocial counselling for children
• Advocacy for Child Act, Anti-trafficking and Bacha Baazi etc
• Recreational and Sports for Children
• IDEAL trainings for children

Current Child Protection Projects and Community Structures:

ECW is currently implementing five projects in child protection in north, north east and eastern regions from Action Aid International (1 province), Ariana Foundation Holland (5 provinces), War Child Canada (4 provinces), Global Affairs Canada (2 provinces), War Child Holland (1 province), Asian Development Bank (2 provinces) and The Asia Foundation (6 provinces- will be started in next month). These projects are covering around 2,400 children as direct beneficiaries and around 6200 indirect beneficiaries including government entities, CSOs, local communities, Elder shuras, religious persons, youth and women etc. In these projects, ECW has established 84 Community Based Child Protection Mechanisms (CBCPMs) with total 1200 direct community persons (50% women/girls). They are active in community for addressing the child protection and education issues through cases identification, referral, advocacy with informal and formal justice systems, taking local actions on the issues. Along with, 12 community Ulama shuras have been setup in the target five provinces, and they are active for educating people on the child rights, CRC, and child rights according to Islam. Along with, 34 youth groups have been setup and trained in target six provinces for promoting child rights, educating people on child rights, CRC and Bacha Baazi issues. Along with, ECW has setup 15 community psychosocial venues active for delivering psychosocial counselling and referral for the children suffering with limitless number of protection issues. ECW has trained 220 government officials and CSOs legal officials on child rights, CRC, anti-trafficking and Bacha Baazi law, and work through legal teams to prosecute child protection issues through provincial courts in five provinces.

Action Aid International has funded three years’ project to ECW to deliver services to 2,110 children for supporting their education and protection needs with community support. This is a long term program continued to support child protection and education until 2022 initially. War Child UK has funded ECW to provide CBE and ALE education for 201 IDPs/returnees and street working children and support their education and protection issues. ECW is running the CBE and ALE project since 2012 (6 years) and provided CBE and ALE education to more than 2100 children and it will be continued until 2020.

Along with, ECW is implementing five years project with GAC and two years with ADB in Nangarhar, Kunduz and Takhar to deliver protection services for elimination of violence against girls through; building knowledge of the community elders, parents and religious persons, legal protection through legal aid/juvenile justice centers and training paralegals, educational support to out of school girls, and building coordination/ networking/ advocacy through engaging community led and provincial CSOs on girls’ rights. 

Along with, ECW is active member of CPAN in around nine provinces of the north, northeast, central and eastern provinces. ECW offices attend CPAN meetings regularly and exchange information on child rights, protection issues, child rights standards and policies. ECW is also active member of Child Rights Advocacy Forum (CRAF) run by Save the Children International. ECW is regularly attending the meetings and part of its girls’ campaigns, Child Act, advocacy on child issues, and expanding its services to around 5-8 provinces to host it and strengthen child rights advocacy and networking at provincial level.

ECW is leading national organization working with local communities to mobilize them for coordination, supporting, participating, advocating and promoting child education in the respective communities. In almost all 124 implemented projects, ECW has performed community mobilization activities through a step-wise process (Community Mapping, identification, selection, organizing in groups/ shuras, building capacities, and sustaining for operationalization).

In the currently running projects, ECW has designed four community mobilization plans with joint support of the community shuras to mobilize the communities for supporting the project initiatives. The plans are revised as per the new advancements and evaluated for progress and achievements. ECW has extensive experience in social mobilization plans and community based monitoring for child protection and development.

Especially in Education projects, ECW has designed the different education programs through the direct engagement of the local communities in information collection surveys, implementation, evaluation and sustainability. ECW has established different community structures (50% female) for supporting the EiE, CBE, ALE, ECCD and advocacy interventions. These community structures were setup with a same purpose but with different names from donor to donor, the list of the few structures bulleted herewith:

• Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs)
• Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs)
• EiE Shuras
• Education Shuras
• CBE Elders
• ECCD Parent Group
• Community Advocacy Group
• Community Action Groups
• And so on….

ECW has also extensive experience in capacity building and trainings for all the above structures/ groups/shuras through various trainings and mobilized their support for child rights, child education, education outreach, awareness and sustaining educational programs in their respective communities. Few of the trainings delivered to these structures/groups/Shuras are given herewith:

• Child Rights
• Convention on the Rights of Children (UN CRC)
• Child Education and Islam
• Ending early marriages
• Parents DEAL
• Parent Teachers Council and its benefits
• Community Constructive Role in School Management
• Community led referral for Child Education
• CPAN and Communities Linkages
• Community led Advocacy on Educational issues

CSOs Capacity Building and Networking: USAID Certification for Re-granting:

USAID conducted a detail organizational assessment of ECW and certified that ECW can re-grant to the local CSOs and youth associations to institutionalize for evidence based advocacy on community needs and address the violence issues of women and girls. In this context, ECW has setup network of 22 CSOs in central and northeast Afghanistan that promotes the well beings of poor, marginalized and culturally affected and victim of violence women, youth and children.  This network is supported through different ways i.e. organizational development, re-granting and volunteerism initiatives at the community level. This network is part of national advocacy to influence policies and provide ways for bridging civil society especially women with the local to national government.

ECW has an OD section in head office, they are conducting monthly organizational assessments and finding gaps, and proposing appropriate trainings, mentoring and on-job training support for filling the gaps. Apart from, OD section has also a Materials Critics Committees (MCC) who are responsible for checking and validating quality of the training materials and make it standardized, and then allow trainings for the staff, beneficiaries and local CSOs. ECW has also capacity to build institutional and operational capacity of local CSOs especially women led CSOs for coordinating, advocating, protection and promoting gender and women rights within their programs and operations. ECW has currently 11 master trainers delivering trainings in different topics i.e.

• Gender and Gender Mainstreaming
• Evidence Based Advocacy (Basic and Advance)
• CSOs/NGOs' Rights, Roles and Empowerment Mechanisms (Advocacy, Accountability, Networking)
• Good Governance
• Community/Authorities Accountability Dialogues
• Community Mobilization
• CSOs/Community Networking
• Women Rights
• Women Rights in Islam
• Women Economic Rights
• Women Democratic Rights
• Women's Rights in National and International Laws
• Conflict Mediation
• EVAW law
• Countering Trafficking in Person
• Sexual Harassment
• Civic Education etc.

ECW is leading national organization working with local communities to mobilize them for coordination, supporting, participating, advocating and promoting child education in the respective communities. In almost all 124 implemented projects, ECW has performed community mobilization activities through a step-wise process (Community Mapping, identification, selection, organizing in groups/ shuras, building capacities, and sustaining for operationalization).

In the currently running projects, ECW has designed four community mobilization plans with joint support of the community shuras to mobilize the communities for supporting the project initiatives. The plans are revised as per the new advancements and evaluated for progress and achievements. ECW has extensive experience in social mobilization plans and community based monitoring for child protection and development.

Especially in Education projects, ECW has designed the different education programs through the direct engagement of the local communities in information collection surveys, implementation, evaluation and sustainability. ECW has established different community structures (50% female) for supporting the EiE, CBE, ALE, ECCD and advocacy interventions. These community structures were setup with a same purpose but with different names from donor to donor, the list of the few structures bulleted herewith:

• Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs)
• Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs)
• EiE Shuras
• Education Shuras
• CBE Elders
• ECCD Parent Group
• Community Advocacy Group
• Community Action Groups
• And so on….

ECW has also extensive experience in capacity building and trainings for all the above structures/ groups/shuras through various trainings and mobilized their support for child rights, child education, education outreach, awareness and sustaining educational programs in their respective communities. Few of the trainings delivered to these structures/groups/Shuras are given herewith:

• Child Rights
• Convention on the Rights of Children (UN CRC)
• Child Education and Islam
• Ending early marriages
• Parents DEAL
• Parent Teachers Council and its benefits
• Community Constructive Role in School Management
• Community led referral for Child Education
• CPAN and Communities Linkages
• Community led Advocacy on Educational issues

Education Experience:

ECW is working since 1997 in education programs for boys and especially for girls, either belong to IDPs/returnees or the host/local communities in around five regions of Afghanistan. In the last 20 years, ECW has worked and implemented long-term and financially sizable projects in following sectors:

• Education in Emergency (EiE)
• Community Based Education (CBE)
• Accelerated Learning Education (ALE)
• Early Childhood Development (ECD)
• Early Grade Improvement
• Temporary/Tents Emergency Education
• Financial Support for Out of School Children through Education packages
• Advocacy on Educational Issues at provincial and national level
• Monitoring and Accountability of Educational Services Delivery
• Education Awareness Campaigns
• Coordination with Clusters, Working Groups and Education platforms
• Capacity building of Teachers and Community Groups/Shuras/Elders
• Networking with Educational CSOs on Child Protection and Education

Teachers Training and Capacity Building Interventions:

ECW has delivered numerous trainings to teachers on wide scale of subjects in EIE, CBE, ALE, formal schools and ECD in the last 20 years’ experience in education sector. The following are few of the trainings where trainers and educational instructors have been trained:

• TOT for Teachers
• Teaching Methodology
• Pedagogy and Andragogy
• Early Grade Methods
• Violence Free Schools
• INSET trainings
• DEAL and IDEAL for teachers and students (lengthy courses)
• School Administration
• CBE policy
• Education Policy
• Convention on the Rights of Children (UN CRC)
• Positive Discipline
• Curriculum Development and Evaluation
• ECCD trainings
• INEE trainings
• Enrolment and Out of School Children
• Teachers’ advocacy with MoEd for School Issues
• Parent Teachers Associations
• Teaching and Parenting Skills
• Schools Complaints Mitigation
• Class/Lessons Evaluation
• Audio and Visual Aids
• Classroom Management
• Child Rights Awareness
• CHAST trainings
• And so on……