CWS Asia
Child Protection and Safeguarding
Children enjoy reading books in Lang Chanh, Vietnam. Photo: CWS
New water filter for a kindergarten in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Photo: CWS
Students from a CCT school (Thailand) take part in a workshop on child protection and internet safety. Photo: CWS
In all CWS projects across Southeast Asia – integrated rural community development, especially WASH and nutrition as well as disaster risk reduction and mitigation – are designed and implemented with a focus on children’s best interests, rights and needs.
In Indonesia, CWS supports an initiative to protect children who are in Jakarta as asylum seekers and refugees. In addition to support for young children seeking refuge along with their families, CWS has a strong shelter and protection project for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, mostly young teenagers, who find their way to Jakarta on their own. About 200 such children live in five group homes (shelters) in several Jakarta neighborhoods, and they are supported to have the basics for safe daily living by CWS and a number of other groups, including local police. In addition, these children have educational opportunities, recreational activities and access to psychosocial and healthcare services.
CWS supports the Church of Christ in Thailand’s Office of Child Protection as The Church continues promoting a positive, proactive Code of Conduct for Child Safeguarding for all its members: churches, schools, orphanages, universities and hospitals. The aim is to have a fully ‘child safe’ organization.
The NEW IDEA project in Vietnam has a particular focus on child protection awareness-raising because of the potential harm that the ethnic minority communities with which we work face regard child trafficking.
Countries: Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam
Latest News
Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct In Karen Language Is Issued by CCT and CWS
CWS Thailand | October 17, 2017
Recently, CWS colleagues Suchawalee (Bon) Mankhong and Ponsawan (Cake) Lysoowan, who are seconded to work with the Office of Child Protection at The Church of Christ in Thailand, traveled to west-central Thailand to lead an information-sharing session about the CCT Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct. Since many church members in the six Thai provinces whose […]
Momentum Grows for The Church of Christ in Thailand’s Child Safeguarding Initiative
CWS Thailand | June 13, 2017
Now that The Church of Christ in Thailand has finalized its Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct, CWS is supporting a follow-on initiative for three child safeguarding specialists to reach out to communities within the Church – schools, hospitals and congregations – to review and understand the details of the Code of Conduct. Altogether, the Church […]
It Was a Long and Difficult Journey … I Feel Much Safer Now
CWS Indonesia | May 7, 2017
Aziz* is from Afgooye in Somalia, and his story echoes that of many other boys who flee their country to get away from a militia trying to make them join their ranks. Also, like many others, after a long journey through Malaysia, he arrived alone in Indonesia and found his way to the United Nations […]
“These Children Need Very Special Care”
CWS Indonesia | April 8, 2017
The Community Health Center (Puskesmas) in Oekam village, West Timor, in the only clinic for people from 10 villages in Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) district, and Vera Kuli has been working there for the past six years. Part of her role is monitoring children’s nutritional status in all 10 villages; and, in this role, she […]
It’s Never Too Late To Learn: Building a Better Future For Our Children
CWS Myanmar | April 7, 2017
Nang Aye Khaing (Ma Nang) is 38 and lives in Auk Htone village in Southwest Myanmar with her husband U Aung Min and three children: a daughter, 17, and two sons, 11 and 5. The family runs a small grocery store and basket weaving business from their home which, alarmingly, has lost six acres of […]
A Profile in Courage, and Hope: A Somali Refugee Girl’s Story
CWS Indonesia | March 14, 2017
Nafyar* was 12 when men from the Al-Shabab militia entered her hometown in Somalia, killing her parents and older siblings. Nafar survived by hiding until the militia left, and then a kind-hearted neighbor helped her escape to Kenya. After living in Kenya for two years, and after a long journey by ways of Malaysia, Nafyar […]
A Young Myanmar Family with A Brighter Future: A New Opportunity Starts to Pay Off
CWS Myanmar | February 23, 2017
CWS Japan Partnership Helps Myint Myint Kyi, who is known as Ma Kyi, is 22 years old and lives in Inn Tae Su village in Maubin Township of Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Region. She is married and, with her husband, Ye Lay, who is 31 years old, she has two boys: Zin Myo Oo is 5 years […]
Hope, resilience and innovation on the Thailand-Myanmar border
Leslie Wilson | November 7, 2016
For more than 20 years, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Myanmar (Burma) have lived inside Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border – next to their country yet far from their homes . Last week, I visited one refugee camp that is home to about 6,000 people, mainly from the Karen ethnic group, who live […]
Child rights awareness-raising
CWS Vietnam | September 9, 2016
Phi Hung is a four-year old boy from Vietnam’s La Hu ethnic minority group who, along with his two-year-old brother and countless other ethnic minority children, does not have a birth certificate. When his parents joined a child rights awareness-raising session in his village, they like all others in remote Mu Chi village (Muong Te […]
Finalizing the Church’s child protection code of conduct
Thailand | August 6, 2016
Leaders from The Church of Christ in Thailand, a key partner of CWS in Asia, are finalizing the Church’s child protection code of conduct in partnership with key university and government advisors. The code’s formal adoption by Church leaders is on track for later this year.