ANANDA KING: We want the communities and patients we serve to feel safe in our working environments. As some of you may know, Doctors Without Borders is a medical humanitarian organisation. So, we delivered medical service in medical facilities all around the world and in very isolated places sometimes. So, we want people to come and trust themselves not only regarding the quality of the medical care delivered but also to trust the environment, the health structure, and most importantly, the staff. 

AFROZA CHAITY: Safeguarding is the action that is taken to ensure safety and security of all staff to perform them from all forms of harms internally and externally. Safeguarding means protecting children and adults from abuse and maltreatment. So many policies are existing here like PSEA policy, anti-harassment policy, child protection policy, gender policy, where it's strictly noted that zero tolerance in any kind of abuse and harassment. 

PAULAMI DE SARKAR: For us, safeguarding is extremely important, because organisations working in humanitarian context and development context has the responsibility to ensure that the programmes, operations, staff should not do any harm to children, communities, and staffs. Children are by nature vulnerable to those who are more powerful than they are. 

And risk factors in a child's environment like alcohol abuse, domestic violence, stress due to economic hardship, and relationship risk like absence of parents or trusted adults, disability, different sexual orientation makes them more vulnerable. And in humanitarian or development context children and communities have less power and movements. This makes them exposed to abuse, exploitation, and neglect. 

WINFRED MUNDIA: We work with youth-led organisations who support children and young people and adults at risk. And it is for this reason that safeguarding is so important to us, so that the activities, the projects they implement do not cause any harm to the ultimate beneficiaries and also to their staff. The second reason why is safeguarding is so important to us is because if safeguarding measures are properly implemented, it guards QCT's reputation among funders, partners and the general public. 

ANGELINE MANYONGA: So basically, as an organisation and work with different projects. And some of these projects, we work with vulnerable groups. These include the persons with disabilities. We work with refugees as well as the Youth [INAUDIBLE] Project. So, it's our responsibility to safeguard these people in the manner that we respect their basic human rights and protect them from any harm or abuse. And so that they can live a life free from fear as well. So that's why safeguarding is very important for our organisation. 

Hopefully you are familiar now with the meaning of safeguarding and also how some leaders in the field interpret them for their own organisations. Many previous learners on the course have noted that the level of knowledge of safeguarding amongst the communities they work with often very low. Views on safeguarding may also be influenced by the cultural context in which you work. So, as well as everyone within an organisation understanding definitions like that of SEAH, publicising this more widely is also something we need to think about – a topic we will return to later in the course.