Life-saving child protection interventions for most vulnerable children and their caregivers through integrated protection mobile team in priority locations in South Sudan The proposed intervention envisions implementing life-saving Child Protection activities in hard to reach areas for most vulnerable children and families. Our response to immediate protection needs focuses on referral and provision of services such as Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR), psychosocial support, and material support using a community mobilisation approach and capacity-building activities for target communities and partners, Save the Children will seek to increase the level of protection and care for particularly vulnerable children and families including unaccompanied and separated children, child survivors of sexual violence, abducted children, children associated with armed forces or armed groups as well as other vulnerable children affected by conflict and famine. An emphasis will be placed by the child protection team on the identification and response to urgent child protection concerns (such as separation, sexual violence, abduction, recruitment and use) and the monitoring and reporting of grave violations.

Our Child Protection team composed of 4 Child Protection in Emergencies (CPIE) officers and 1 Team Leader will work in an integrated way with other teams from the Protection Cluster – Integrated Protection Mobile Team (IPMT). Integrated protection mobile teams will conduct assessment and response missions in priority locations for the Protection Cluster in South Sudan in order to reach areas with access constraints due to poor infrastructure or weather, remote locations, places with urgent needs but with few or no actors responding and access constraints due to security stability which only allows for occasional response missions. Integrated protection assessments which will last for maximum of 5 days and response missions which will last for 2-8 weeks. The overall IPMTs assessment findings will be used to inform the IPMT response but also will provide essential information that will be shared with other clusters for target interventions and for advocacy purposes with the Government, donors and key stakeholders. Child Protection response and dedicated services will be adapted to the context based on the availability of services, actors and particular needs of children and families in particular location.

Within the provision of psychosocial support to vulnerable children recreational and informal educational activities will be part of Child Friendly Spaces including Psychological First Aid. In each of the mission locations, one temporary Child Friendly Space (CFS) will be established through community mobilization approach training community members in order to create an opportunity for children to play and access PSS activities. It will be an opportunity to sensitize parents and caregivers with key child protection messages. The CFS will also act as an area for vulnerable or at risk cases to be identified and referred for follow up and support by the IPMT or other services available. 

In addition, the project will seek to increase the capacity of target communities and partners to identify, report, and refer children with urgent child protection concerns. Activities will focus on strengthening community-based child protection mechanisms, and raising awareness about existing services and preventive messages. Through all of its activities in project areas, Save the Children will prioritize the provision of services to boys and girls who experience the greatest levels of vulnerability using agreed vulnerability criteria developed by the Case Management Task Force and the CP sub-cluster.

At the national level, Save the Children will continue to coordinate and support the Family, tracing and reunification response in South Sudan, expanding to support roll out of Case Management through the coordination of the FTR working group, co-lead of Case Management task force and capacity building of partners across the country.