On the 13th of December 2018 in Velingrad the team of Hope and Homes for Children – branch Bulgaria participated in a Safeguarding and Participation global refresher session. The session was part of the global initiative to expand knowledge and increase the commitment of all employees to share a common understanding of safeguarding and to create a positive safeguarding culture within the organization. The session was led by Georgi Simeonov, Executive Director of HHC – Bulgaria and Iva Nikolova, Program Coordinator and Safeguarding and Participation Focal person, who presented the global aim of the session – to review HHC’s safeguarding policy in the context of the humanitarian sector crisis and to further strengthen an organisational safeguarding culture in which staff, children, families and community members feel, and are, safe to raise and discuss any issues that concern them, without fear of negative repercussions and with confidence that their concerns will be responded to in a timely, transparent and effective manner centred on their wellbeing. Special attention was given to the minimum safeguarding standards that non-governmental organizations and their partners should meet. In small groups, HHC – Bulgaria’s employees discussed how we can most effectively strengthen our organizational capacity and facilitate signaling mechanisms, identify strengths and areas that need to be strengthened in terms of safeguarding, shared ideas for the future development of the child and youth participation program, etc.
