Prevention of Domestic Violence affecting Children during COVID-19

Family for Every Child

Governments around the world responded to the spread of COVID-19 by imposing lockdowns, quarantines and school closures. While these measures have contained the spread of the virus, they have also increased the risk factors for intimate partner violence and child abuse, leading to what the UN has described as “the shadow pandemic of domestic violence”.

Family for Every Child alliance members have been in close contact with children, families and communities during the pandemic. They have seen that domestic violence is being inflicted on children either directly in the form of child abuse, or through children being affected by the increased intimate partner violence within families.

In this How We Care series, Family for Every Child has presented the programming of 3 of its CSO members who have been working on the ground on this issue. ChildLinK in Guyana, the Foundation for Innovative Social Development (FISD) in Sri Lanka, and the Association for Community Development (ACD) in Bangladesh. The programmes and tools are presented through a series of briefing papers, videos and illustrations, which include learnings for other practitioners who may wish to adapt them to their contexts. You can also listen to Family's latest Conversations on Care podcast episode on this topic.