Examples of primary prevention

In this video, we hear from Geoffrey Oyat who is the Regional Child Protection Advisor with Save the Children covering East and Southern Africa. He holds a Master’s Degree in Education and has worked with Save the Children in various child protection roles since 2001 in Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Liberia before his current role. While working in Liberia from 2009-12 he was instrumental in the care reform work which was led by the Government of Liberia. Drawing on Save the Children experience elsewhere, Geoffrey has been active in the development and revision of Liberia’s national Social Welfare Policy and Plan, Liberia’s Children’s Act as well as other national policy and legal reforms such as changes to the adoption law, establishing minimum child care standards and development of community options as alternatives to institutional care for vulnerable children. Geoffrey is an advocate for the rights of children and has spoken at various conferences on the issue.

Geoffrey recorded this video for us in the Save the Children office in Uganda. He speaks about the importance of access to basic services including health care and education. He tells us he found how the education and poverty levels of parents are a factor when determining children’s vulnerability to being separated from their family. He provides practical examples of his work in Liberia preventing children being unnecessarily placed in alternative care and how targeted interventions to support families and working with the Government to strengthen laws and policies played an important role.