Co-producing a ‘Children First’ strategy at El Rio Foundation
El Rio Foundation offers sports and educational opportunities to local children in the Caribbean region of Colombia.
After a period of unprecedented growth, the organisation needed to bring its systems and infrastructure in line with its expanded operations, particularly around safeguarding.
I oversaw a series of consultation sessions - led by Spanish-speaking staff - with children, families, and workers, to understand the unique challenges of this remote region of Colombia. This fed into a total overhaul of the safeguarding policy - from an off-the shelf British template to a tailored policy in line with local community relations and infrastructure - alongside a children’s rights and safeguarding strategy with meaningful systems and structures to support its implementation.
Read more: Lessons from Colombia - promoting children’s rights in the Sierra Nevada jungle
Testimony:
“Kahra did a really fantastic job. She worked incredibly hard, not only to review our old policy in huge detail but also to write our new policy going forwards.
“She did this based off the 10+ community consultations she set up with all our community stakeholders, with kids from four communities, parents, staff, volunteers, coaches, Tutors etc. She has also created a library of useful resources from job specifications to training manuals and everything in between.
“She did an absolutely phenomenal job and has helped us put a very robust and best practice framework in place that we will use for many years to come.
“She was a joy to work with...Her brilliant attitude combined with her level of expertise is a wonderful combination and her impact will be felt in our local town of Buritaca for many years to come.”
-Felix Sullivan, Director