Draft Standards for Fieldwork with Children Presented

Process of informal standardization of service of Drop-in centres for street involved and at risk children in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) is in its final phase after the presentation of the draft minimum standards for the outreach work. The final workshop was held on 17 September in Sarajevo, with the participation of representatives of organizations managing Drop-in centres and representatives of non-governmental sector and institutions at local, cantonal, entity and state level.

Coordination of the development of minimum standards was led by the association "Zemlja djece" from Tuzla, with the participation of representatives of organizations managing Drop-in centres as well as representatives of referral Social Welfare Centres (Mostar, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla and Zenica), all within the implementation of the project “Comprehensive Support and Protection for Children on the Move”, with professional and financial support of Save the Children.

Save the Children, together with partner organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, has been working to identify effective models and services to support and protect the street involved and at risk children, in terms of prevention or risk reduction from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect, including mitigation of risks from unsafe migration and child trafficking.

As one of the most important results of this work, in several towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, Drop-in centres for street involved and at risk children are established. Drop-in centres provide support and protection for this group of children, here they have a chance to get a warm meal, help with school enrolment and learning, and an opportunity to spend quality leisure time as well.

Street involved and at risk children are one of the most marginalized groups of children in BiH. Previous studies and researches have shown that this group had insufficient attention, while the applied approaches were more repressive and less integrative and preventive. In addition, existing legislation treat these children as offenders rather than victims of exploitation or life circumstances.

“Together with partner organizations that manages Drop-in centres in B-H we have created a new type of social services that will adequately respond to the needs of the group of children that has not been recognized as such yet in all the laws on social protection in BiH, but all indicates that it will be,” stressed on this occasion Save the Children Director Andrea Žeravčić.

During the workshop all participants were invited to support recognition and adoption of this service and standards in all parts of our country.