Child Protection and GBV as a Question of Safety, Dignity, and Institutional Responsibility
CDSJ understands this pillar as a wider protection agenda concerned with how harm is produced, how it is prevented, how survivors are supported, and how systems become more capable of acting with urgency, coordination, and care.
Building Safer Communities, Not Just Better Responses
Children, women, girls, and other vulnerable populations are harmed not only when violence occurs, but also when warning signs are missed, when harmful norms are normalised, when services are fragmented, and when institutions respond too late, too weakly, or not at all.
This pillar brings together violence prevention, child protection systems strengthening, community engagement, survivor-centred response, referral pathways, social norms change, safe environments, and accountability — because safer communities are built not only by reacting to abuse, but by changing the conditions that allow it to persist.
When Protection Fails in Quiet and Devastating Ways
Protection failures are often lived in quiet ways — a child left unsafe because reporting pathways are weak, a survivor who stays silent because services are far away, a girl at risk because harmful norms are treated as culture.
Stronger Protective Environments, Better Systems, Safer Communities
CDSJ's ambition is not only to respond after violence. It is to help build stronger protective environments in which risk is reduced earlier, disclosure becomes safer, communities are more alert, and institutions are better able to act in ways that are timely, coordinated, survivor-centred, and child-sensitive.
Changing norms and reducing risk before harm occurs
Working in the social space where violence is tolerated, minimised, or excused — through community dialogue and social and behaviour change approaches.
Survivor-centred, coordinated, dignified support
Strengthening the quality, coordination, and accessibility of support available to survivors — reducing secondary harm and improving pathways to remedy.
Building child protection systems that actually work
Strengthening referral pathways, coordination between actors, and the practical functioning of child protection systems at community and institutional level.
Six Workstreams for Child Protection and GBV Prevention
Six interconnected workstreams from prevention through response and systems strengthening.
Community-Based Prevention and Social Norms Change
Advancing community dialogue, social and behaviour change, engagement with local leaders, and awareness processes that help shift harmful norms around power, control, gender, childhood, and violence.
Child Protection Systems and Referral Linkages
Strengthening reporting pathways, community-to-institution referral, child-sensitive case handling, local protection mechanisms, and practical movement from risk to protective response.
Survivor-Centred and Trauma-Informed GBV Response
Strengthening the quality, coordination, and accessibility of support for survivors — reducing secondary harm and building pathways that are humane, visible, and usable.
Protective Family, School, Community, and Digital Environments
Supporting safer school and community environments, protective caregiver engagement, child safety awareness, and prevention in both offline and digital spaces where children spend their time.
Harmful Practices, Adolescent Vulnerability, and Girls' Safety
Addressing child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, exploitation, and harmful social norms through prevention, family and community engagement, and support pathways for girls at heightened risk.
Caregiver Support and Community Protective Capacity
Strengthening positive caregiving approaches, community support networks, linkages between protection and socio-economic resilience, and local capacity to identify and respond to risk.
Priority Populations & Contexts
CDSJ is especially concerned with children, women, and girls whose safety is most shaped by unequal power, weak systems, and limited access to support.
Children
At risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and harmful practices — especially where protection systems are weak and community reporting pathways are unclear.
Adolescent Girls
Facing risks of child marriage, early pregnancy, sexual violence, and harmful norms that shape their safety and life chances.
Survivors of GBV
Who need survivor-centred, coordinated support and referral pathways that are accessible, dignified, and free from secondary harm.
Families & Caregivers
Carrying immense pressure with too little support — where caregiver stress and household vulnerability can increase risk for children.
Communities with Weak Protective Systems
Where silence, impunity, weak coordination, and the absence of protection systems allow vulnerability to be repeated.
Children in Digital Spaces
Exposed to online abuse and exploitation risks without adequate safeguards or awareness of how to seek help.
Results We Aim to Contribute To
Through this pillar, CDSJ contributes to safer communities, stronger protection systems, and better support for children and survivors across Lesotho.
Safer community environments with stronger prevention and reduced tolerance of violence and harmful practices
Stronger child protection systems with improved early identification, referral, and case follow-through
Better survivor support pathways that are coordinated, accessible, and free from secondary harm
More protective family, school, and community environments for children and adolescents
Stronger accountability for institutions with protection responsibilities — more responsive and better coordinated
Reduced exposure to harmful practices affecting girls and adolescents — child marriage, exploitation, GBV
Partner With CDSJ on Child Protection and GBV
Whether you are a child protection funder, GBV specialist, government institution, or civil society partner — CDSJ offers grounded expertise in prevention, systems strengthening, and survivor-centred programming across Lesotho.