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Callan Services National Unit
(Within the Network of Callan Services Education, Community Based Rehabilitation and Health Services for People with Disabilities)
PO Box 542,
Wewak ESP 531 Papua New Guinea
Tel: +675 4561081 Fax: +675 456 2924
Director: Br Kevin Ryan Email:KPryan@edmundrice.org
Protecting children with a disability – Callan Services National Unit providing a child protection national initiative for PNG
Callan Services National Unit is a service of the Christian Brothers in PNG. The Unit delivers capacity building services for the Network of seventeen Callan Services in PNG.
The Network of Callan Services provides community based rehabilitation services and inclusive education for children with a disability in 17 Provinces within PNG.
Children with a disability are at highest risk within any society of being maltreated through child abuse or child neglect. Children with a disability therefore require special care in ensuring their safety and protection.
The Callan Services National Unit, working with Dr Pauline Meemeduma, an Australian child protection specialist working for the Christian Brothers Oceania Province has commenced the implementation of a child protection capacity building strategic plan for all the services in the Network for children with a disability in PNG.
The Callan Network is committed to the care, safety and protection of all children who receive the services they provide in PNG. The Network seeks to be a model of Best Practice child protection standards in providing services for children with a disability in PNG.
The Callan Network has developed a five-day Foundational Child Protection workshop for all staff and volunteers who work with children with a disability within Callan services. The training programme was designed by Dr Pauline Meemeduma in collaboration with many representatives of the Services in the Network.
Dr Pauline Meemeduma, a child protection specialist trainer from Perth, Western Australia, delivered one of these Foundational Workshops at Alexishafen Conference Centre in Madang in March.
Dr Meemeduma will also design and conduct a Train the Trainer (TOT) programme for PNG staff to conduct future foundational training throughout PNG and specialist child maltreatment reporting and investigation and a children’s services leadership training programes for Callan services staff throughout 2011/12.
Dr Meemeduma has over thirty-years experience as a social worker in child protection in Australia, the United States, UK and Singapore as well as in several developing countries in the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions. She has extensive experience as a social work academic in Australia as senior lecturer in social work at James Cook University in North Queensland and as Associate Professor and Head of Social Work at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. She is currently Associate Professor of Social Work for the new social work programme at Murdoch University in Western Australia. She has been and remains an international child protection consultant for UNICEF, international NGOs and for national governments in capacity building direct child protection services for children.
Dr Meemeduma has designed electronic and hardcopy training material which will be available in Tok Pisin and English and be available to staff and volunteers in service offices throughout PNG.
Participants in the first foundational training programme in Madang described it as the first time they have learnt about the types of child abuse and neglect children can be exposed to, theories of child development, how to professionally communicate with children and families and their individual child protection responsibilities. Participants said the child protection training was designed around real life child protection situations, where they could apply the knowledge they learnt in the morning into exercises with case situations in the afternoon and evenings. One participant indicated “now I can return to my work with children with a disability with more professional knowledge’ to ensure the safety and protection of children.
The Network of Callan Services intends to work in partnership with the Department of Community Welfare and other NGOs in PNG to ensure all children; particularly children with a disability are cared for, safe and protected throughout PNG in the coming years.
Kevin Ryan 20 March 2011
