Induction before contact
No staff member, volunteer or partner facilitator works with participants before completing safeguarding induction covering conduct, consent, confidentiality and reporting.
Safeguarding & protection
Protecting the people we work with
Everyone who takes part in our programmes has the right to be safe, respected and heard — especially refugees and displaced families. This hub explains our training standards, the conduct we expect, and how to report a concern.
Training standards
What every person representing us must complete
Safeguarding training is a condition of every role, paid or unpaid, in every country we work in.
Screening and references
Roles with access to children or at-risk adults require identity checks, references and, where available, criminal-record checks appropriate to the country.
Refresher and role-specific training
Protection, psychosocial first aid and gender-based-violence referral training is repeated for refugee-response roles, with additional briefing for each new location.
Supervision and review
Activities are supervised, incidents are logged, and lessons are reviewed after every reported concern.
Requires NGO confirmation: Course names, training providers, refresher frequency, screening standards and record-keeping requirements need to be confirmed by the organisation.
Conduct
Standards we hold ourselves to
- Participation in any programme is voluntary and never conditional on giving information or images.
- Two-adult supervision applies to activities with children wherever practicable.
- Photography and stories are used only with informed consent, and identifying details are withheld when there is any risk.
- Personal data is collected only where necessary, stored securely and shared on a need-to-know basis.
- Any form of exploitation, abuse, harassment, bribery or discrimination results in investigation and removal.
Requires NGO confirmation: The signed code of conduct, full safeguarding policy document and its review date need to be supplied by the organisation.
Reporting
How to report a concern
You can report a concern about anyone connected to our work — staff, volunteer, partner or contractor.
- 1
Tell someone
Report by email, in person to a programme facilitator, or through a partner organisation. You can report anonymously.
- 2
Acknowledgement
Reports are acknowledged and recorded by the safeguarding lead. Access to the report is limited to those who must act on it.
- 3
Assessment and action
Immediate safety needs come first, followed by assessment, referral to specialist or statutory services where required, and investigation.
- 4
Outcome and learning
The person reporting is told what happens next as far as confidentiality allows, and practice is changed where the review shows it should be.
Reporting contacts
Email info@charityhand.org with "Safeguarding" in the subject line, or use the contact form. Reports about a specific country programme can also be raised with the local safeguarding focal point.
Requires NGO confirmation: Named safeguarding lead, direct safeguarding email or hotline, country focal points, whistle-blowing route and response timeframes need to be confirmed.
Refugee response
Extra protection measures in displacement settings
Displacement increases risk. These measures apply to our programmes in Uganda, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.
Female facilitators lead all sessions with women and girls, with private referral options.
Protection, psychosocial and legal-rights information is delivered by trained facilitators only.
Referral directories for specialist services are maintained per location and reviewed regularly.
Requires NGO confirmation: Country-specific referral pathways, statutory reporting duties and inter-agency coordination arrangements need to be confirmed.