Save the Children in Bhutan
Save the Children is a worldwide international organization that works for the children’s rights and wellbeing. It was founded in 1919 in the United Kingdom by Eglantyne Jebb who pioneered the idea of children’s rights.
Save the Children was established in Bhutan in 1982. Over the last 40 years, Save the Children has been working in partnership with the government and local CSOs in the key areas of Education, Child Protection and Child Health, to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized children and their families. Our work is guided by the global Ambition 2030 goals, country strategic plans, and the government’s five-year plan priorities.
Our impact for children
What we do
SURVIVE: No child dies from preventable causes before their fifth birthday.
Bhutan’s national response to HIV is geared to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 with targets to increase the proportion of persons living with HIV (PLHIV) who are diagnosed to more than 95%, the proportion of those diagnosed on treatment to 100%, and the proportion with sustained viral suppression to more than 95%. The engagement of key populations (KPs) in HIV response and KP-targeted programming is still in its nascent stages, with most programs funded through non-domestic sources. Key populations face an increased burden and are at a greater risk of acquiring HIV due to several behavioral, socioeconomic, structural, and legal factors. The HIV epidemic is driven by key populations in many parts of the world. Recent data indicates a similar trend for Bhutan.
LEARN: All children learn from quality basic education.
Save the Children Bhutan Office has been supporting activities around education interventions in partnership with the MOESD since the early 2000. Early on the focus of support was on increasing access to quality primary education and adolescent development. Interventions such as construction of community primary schools, short-term attachment program in Australia for teachers at multigrade schools, life-skills education, school-based parenting education program, training of teacher counsellors and student peer-counsellors, and operationalization of youth centers were supported both technically and financially. In 2008, we began focusing on increasing access to quality Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) center program for 3-5-year-old children in partnership with the ECCD & Special Education Needs (ECCD & SEN) Division of the MOESD. After supporting the MOESD in scaling-up the ECCD center program, from 2018 onwards we have moved onto supporting the optimal development of 0-3-year-old children and partnered with the MoH to deliver playful parenting group sessions for caregivers as well as provide child development screening and referral services in all public health centers and out-reach clinics across the country.
BE PROTECTED: Violence against children is no longer tolerated.
Bhutan signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1999, in the same year, Save the Children began our work for juvenile children at Youth Development & Rehabilitation Centre, in partnership with the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP). SC Bhutan was the first international agency to partner with the RBP to work for children coming in conflict and contact with the law. SC Bhutan implemented a project from 2014 to 2019 in partnership with National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC), the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), and a local Civil Society organization - Nazhoen Lamtoen and for the first time it brought together a host of child justice actors and institutions, which includes the Judiciary – Royal Court of Justice, Bhutan National Legal Institute (BNLI), the Prosecution – Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Law Enforcement – RBP , the apex competent authority for women and children – the NCWC, and relevant CSOs – Bhutan Youth Development Fund (YDF); RENEW; and Nazhoen Lamtoen. As a result, the First Child Court in the country (called Family & Child Bench) was established in Thimphu; Child Court Procedures were developed, and key staffs were trained; Child friendly prosecution guidelines and diversion guidelines were developed by the OAG and key staff trained; Standard Operating Procedures for police dealing with Children in Conflict with the Law and Children in Difficult Circumstances were developed and key police officers trained.
SC Bhutan, NCWC, and the RBP later partnered again in 2018 to build a social protection system for children in Bhutan and as a result, the first National Child Helpline 1098, and a transitional shelter home to provide a safe space, counselling, reformation, and reintegration support for children who suffer abuse and neglect was established. Currently, in collaboration with the Women and Children’s Division, Scouts
and Sports Division, MoESD, Nazhoen Lamtoen and the Pema Secretariat, the project, “Empowering Communities to Address Violence Against Children in Bhutan” is ongoing.