From Every Call to African Regional Action: C-SEMA Champions Child Protection in Maseru.
In Lesotho’s capital, C-SEMA brought a clear message to Africa’s child rights discussions: listening to children must lead to timely support, stronger services and lasting action.
A child’s decision to ask for help can be a small moment with enormous consequences.
It might begin with a phone call. A child may be frightened, confused or unsure about what will happen next. They may simply know that something is wrong and that they need someone to listen.
What happens after that call matters.
Someone must answer. Someone must listen without judgement. And, where protection is needed, there must be a system ready to respond. This was at the heart of C-SEMA’s engagement in Maseru, where civil society organisations, children, government representatives and African Union experts gathered to advance children’s rights.
C-SEMA Chief Executive Michael Marwa participated in the 29th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) CSO Forum and the first two days of the Committee’s 48th Ordinary Session. In his additional role as Child Helpline International’s Regional Representative for Africa, he brought the perspective of child helplines into regional discussions on child protection, accountability and safety in the digital environment.
For C-SEMA, whose work includes Tanzania’s National Child Helpline 116, the message was familiar: Every child should have somewhere safe to turn when they need help.
Listening is where protection begins
At the opening of the CSO Forum on 8th October, Marwa delivered solidarity remarks on behalf of Child Helpline International.
The Forum’s theme, From Rights to Reality, provided a fitting backdrop for a simple but important question: what happens when a child tries to turn their rights into reality by asking for help?
“Every call matters. Every child matters. And every response must count.” Marwa said.
A helpline can give a child a place to begin, but answering the phone is only the first step.
A child reporting violence or abuse may need psychosocial support, health services, social welfare assistance, protection from further harm or help navigating the justice system. That means child helplines cannot work in isolation.
Marwa called for stronger connections between helplines, government institutions, civil society, social welfare services, health providers, schools and justice institutions, connections that can help turn a child’s disclosure into meaningful support.
He also emphasised the importance of children’s voices in shaping public investment and accountability, and of creating safe and meaningful opportunities for children to influence the decisions that affect their lives.
Because listening to children is not simply about hearing what they have to say. It is also about being prepared to do something with what we hear.
Bringing 116 into the regional conversation
One important outcome of the CSO Forum was the inclusion of child helplines in its recommendations to the Committee. The Forum called on the ACERWC to urge all State Parties to adopt and operationalise the harmonised 116 child helpline number, supported by sustainable funding and accessible national protection and response systems. The recommendations also recognised child helplines as an important part of protecting children from online and cross-border abuse.
For C-SEMA, this is an important step towards ensuring that children across the continent have a clear and accessible route to help. A memorable number is a useful starting point.
But 116 only becomes meaningful when there are people ready to answer, services ready to respond and systems strong enough to protect the child on the other side of the call.
Protecting children in a changing digital world
The first two days of the Committee’s 48th Ordinary Session provided another opportunity to bring this message forward, particularly during discussions on violence against children and harmful practices in the digital environment.
Digital technology is creating new opportunities for children to learn, connect and participate. It is also creating new spaces where children can experience harm.
Speaking on behalf of Child Helpline International, Marwa highlighted risks including online grooming, cyberbullying, sexual extortion, harmful content and violations of children’s privacy, while also acknowledging the opportunities presented by digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The challenge is not simply to tell children to be careful online.
It is to make sure that when something goes wrong, they know where to go and can trust that someone will help.
Child helplines can provide an important entry point. They can listen without judgement, help identify a child’s protection needs and connect them with psychosocial support, social welfare services and other professional assistance. Marwa therefore called for governments to invest sustainably in national child helplines and ensure that these services are available around the clock.
When children speak, systems should listen too
Every call to a child helpline is also an opportunity to understand something about the world children are living in. Children may reveal patterns of violence, gaps in services or emerging risks that adults and institutions have not yet recognised. When handled responsibly, with children’s privacy and confidentiality protected, this information can become valuable evidence for improving policies, programmes and resource allocation.
At the regional discussions, Marwa called for child helpline data to contribute to national planning, policy development and State Party reporting to the Committee.
For C-SEMA, this creates a vital connection between frontline support and wider systems change.
A child’s story should not end when the call ends.
What children tell us can help identify what needs to change, in policies, services, communities and the systems designed to protect them.
From Maseru to Manila
The discussions in Maseru also looked towards the forthcoming Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Manila. Marwa urged African governments to include clear commitments to establish, strengthen and sustainably fund child helplines in their national pledges.
For C-SEMA, this connects Tanzania’s experience with a wider continental effort to turn commitments into practical protection.
Because ultimately, progress will not be measured only by what is said in conference rooms.
It will be measured by what happens when a child asks for help.
Does someone answer?
Does support follow?
And is the child safer because they spoke?
From Tanzania to Maseru, C-SEMA’s message remains clear:
Every child deserves to be heard. Every call matters. And every call should lead towards protection.
Prepared by C-Sema's Communications Team.
