Any organisation that has contact or works with children and adults at risk must ensure they are properly cared for and protected. Abuse can be committed by adults, children and young people. It happens in families from every social, religious and cultural setting and can involve leaders, teachers and workers. We should not think ‘it could never happen in this organisation’, because it might! Abuse is a serious crime and its consequences far-reaching.

Children are protected by Tunisian law, the body with special interest in this area is the Association tunisienne de défense des droits de l’enfant at 18 rue d’Egypte, Tunis.

Those we work with should be assured of good standards of care and protection from all Life and Hope personnel. This policy aims to ensure that none of our representatives engages in behaviour that could allow abuse to occur or actions that could be misinterpreted by children or adults at risk, their families or other adults as constituting, or leading to abuse.

The Safeguarding policy also seeks to protect all Life and Hope personnel from unfounded accusations or from behaving in a way that may be well-intentioned but inadvisable. It enables Life and Hope personnel to know what they should do if they have a concern about the welfare of a child or adult at risk.

This policy has used the Global Connections Safeguarding Guideline, which can be found at: http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/resources/codesandstandards

The Safeguarding Officer is the person to whom allegations of abuse should be reported, should such a case arise.

Life and Hope’s Safeguarding Officer is Peter Knight, and the deputy is Balqis Ismaali. They can be contacted at…….

The full Safeguarding Policy is available on request here.