ECHO Lifesaving child protection and education to South Sudanese refugee children living in Ethiopia SUMMARY 
The project started in April 2019 and is implemented by Plan International Ethiopia. It will deliver live-saving child protection services and safe access to education for South Sudanese refugee girls and boys in the Gambella and Benishanguel Gumuz regions. The action will provide live-saving preventative, responsive, age and gender appropriate protection services and psychosocial support. Mainly through capacity building, community-based child protection mechanisms as well as psychosocial support services. The action will also improve and provide access to safe, quality and inclusive primary education for refugee children. This will be achieved through the construction and rehabilitation of learning spaces, teacher training and mainstreaming protection, PSS and MHM in the education sector. The project is gender, disability and age responsive and has focuses on adolescent girls, children with a disability, unaccompanied and separated children and other vulnerable children. The proposed action will provide life-saving protection and education services targeting the most
vulnerable South Sudanese refugee boys and girls, including adolescents as well as their families by
increasing their protection and wellbeing, as well as their access to safe, quality and inclusive primary
education, in a protective child friendly safe and secure environment.

Protection of vulnerable and at-risk Children and youth, especially UASC: This action will
strengthen CP mechanisms and promote safer environments by reducing risk and strengthening
response and resilience. PIE will rehabilitate, manage and improve Child Friendly Spaces (CFS). Social workers (40% female) will run CFS structured activities, psychosocial support and case management. They will be trained on gender-sensitive approaches, safeguarding, the management of CFS, including ensuring that children in the child friendly spaces are safe, engaged in age, gender, disability and culturally appropriate and sensitive activities including life skills. They will be trained as well on case management, identification of UASC and other vulnerable children, as well as on referral mechanisms, SOPs and alternative care. Case workers will closely work with Child Protection Committees (CPC) for case management, including ensuring coordination with CPC, care givers and other community structures to create a safe and child friendly environment. (Foster) parents and care givers will be trained on positive parenting skills, child care and development, and gender equality to improve the quality of (foster) parents. PIE will facilitate training for social workers on how to identify children in need of psychosocial support and on psychosocial first aid, using the IDEAL model, which focuses on contextualizing psychosocial support to the local context and ensuring cultural and gender appropriateness. Community based child protection structures will be supported to identify and support vulnerable children and along with child based protection committees, zonal leaders, and community-based forums for children (including child-led clubs). Child Protection Committees (CPCs) play a critical role in promoting, identifying and helping to ensure the protection of children outside formal services. SRH/SGBV clubs will be set up to educate youth, both male and female, about SRHR, gender related issues and inform them about their rights. Sports, Peaceful co-existence, and art clubs will be available. Youth facilitators together with trained refugee adolescent and youth will cascade skills and knowledge through peer education, life skills sessions, community conversation sessions. The training and support will be based on PIE Champions of Change methodology to promote gender equality and social norm change, and PIE Life Skills curriculum.

Education: PIE will increase access to qualitative primary education in safe, inclusive conducive
learning environments through formal school and learning spaces. ARRA education curriculum will be
taught in a conflict-sensitive manner that aims to mitigate tensions, build resilience and work with all
communities to improve peaceful coexistence and understanding. This will be achieved by providing
teaching and learning materials, by rehabilitating or constructing disability friendly classrooms and
sex-segregated latrines with water points and fences; and by recruiting, training and providing on-the-job coaching to teachers, assistant teachers, according to the curriculum set by ARRA as well as the basic child protection SOPs and in accordance to the Gender-responsive pedagogy approach. 

Parents and the general community will be targeted through community sensitization,
awareness raising campaigns, back to school events, and parent’s meetings to educate them on the
need for and importance of girls' education. Recognizing that decision-making about schooling is
primarily carried out by fathers, specific emphasis will be made to target fathers in promoting girls'
education and enrolment during all awareness raising, registration campaigns and events.

PIE will support schools to maintain conducive learning environments especially for female students by ensuring safe and hygienic sanitation facilities and support girls with (menstrual) hygiene kits, and
provide health and hygiene talks throughout clubs. Girls will be engaged in discussions at school on
issues that affect their education and how they have to overcome these challenges. 

The project strengthens school structures such as Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs), Centre Management Committees (CMCs), school-based feedback, complaints and school-based referral mechanisms. The main target group for child protection activities are unaccompanied, separated or otherwise
vulnerable children, or at risk of being separated or unaccompanied, whereby: -Separated children are
those separated from both parents/ from their previous legal or customary primary care-giver/ other adult
family members. - Unaccompanied children: separated from both parents/relatives. - Other vulnerable
children: children with (physical and cognitive) needs or in need of support because of abuse, or other
vulnerabilities. - Children at risk of separation from their family/ foster care in case of emergency or
voluntary repatriation to South Sudan, leaving the child behind; The case management system follows
inter-agency SOPs developed by the CPWG to categorize the above-mentioned children into low, medium
and high vulnerability based on BIA and BIDs.

The EiE component targets children and adolescents between 7 and 20 years, who are enrolled in
primary education, at risk of dropping out of school and out of school. The focus is on girls as they are
mostly out of school or at risk of dropping out. Other direct beneficiaries: (foster) parents, and caregivers
responsible for UASC and other vulnerable children; key stakeholders as community groups, child
protection structures, service providers, Ministry of Education and social welfare, teachers, mothers in
school, education partners and incentive workers.