Australia
Children have the right to protection from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
An estimated 300 million children worldwide are subjected to violence, exploitation and abuse each year. Of this number many millions of children are sexually exploited and approximately 1.4 million children are trafficked for sexual purposes.
Millions of children must fend for themselves or work, often in hazardous conditions, to support their families, instead of focusing on learning and playing.
These figures are alarming and the unfortunate reality is that unprotected children are to be found everywhere, even in developed countries.
Save the Children Australia works to protect children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect. The following are links to our work:
Speaking Out teaches Australian children about issues that face children in the developing world such as poverty, child labour and exploitation and aims to improve young people’s awareness of and commitment to child rights, and to become informed global citizens.
Save the Children's Domestic & Family Violence Program, Family Support Program and Alternative Care Programs offer practical support to Australian families vulnerable to violence and abuse.
In Bangladesh, our Safe Home Project protects girls from sexual abuse and helps them with skills to choose a future away from the brothel they grew up living inside. It al provides secure surroundings, on neutral ground, for girls who wish to leave brothels voluntarily.
The Creating Access to Alternative Life Choices for the women and children of Daulatdia brothel project began helping sex workers in 2001, aiming to improve the psychosocial condition of women and children living in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.
Save the Children is promoting a child safe Cambodia where children understand and promote their right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation as a result of a strong awareness campaign.
We work with indigenous Cham Muslim and Khmer communities in Cambodia to promote safe migration and prevent the trafficking of women and young children.
Our cross border anti-trafficking project in Laos targets the incidence and impact of child trafficking in the Mekong sub-region through increasing the awareness of children, their families and communities on the right of children to protection against all forms of exploitation, including trafficking.
Our Youth Peer Education Project in Laos aims to empower young people through peer education programs about issues such as HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse and trafficking.
The Children and Young People in Conflict with the Law project aims to reduce the potentially harmful impact of the judicial system on children and young people, by ensuring the Solomon Islands judicial systems meet international standards for child protection.
In Vanuatu, our Child rights project promotes and supports child rights awareness about child rights through training teachers, the government and the wider community, while our Child protection project promotes greater family, community and political responsibility for child protection.