Author: WeBalkans

An EU-funded project helps an online counselling centre in Serbia.

The National Children’s Line (NADEL) is a helpline centre and an integral part of the Centre for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth in Belgrade, and was established as one of the mechanisms to prevent violence against children. Calls to the phone number 116-111 are free and are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. NADEL has been supporting children and their parents since 2005 and in the past decade, NADEL advisors have talked to more than a million callers, offering help, advice, or practical guidance, helping them find answers to questions and solutions to their problems. Perhaps most of all, the line has helped by offering someone who can listen.

However, the pandemic has brought new challenges and crises. Research during the pandemic showed that young people feel afraid. Some have retreated into isolation, while many missed socialising with friends at school. Despite these challenges, the number of calls to NADEL during the pandemic declined.

“A logical explanation for us was that because of lockdown, the whole family was together 24/7. There was no privacy and many did not have the opportunity to pick up a phone and talk to anyone outside of the family, including on the NADEL line.”

This paradoxical situation caught the attention of Unicef in Serbia who had been long-term partners and supporters of NADEL. Vesna Dejanović is a child protection specialist with Unicef. She shares her analysis: “A logical explanation for us was that because of lockdown, the whole family was together 24/7. There was no privacy and many did not have the opportunity to pick up a phone and talk to anyone outside of the family, including on the NADEL line”.

With this in mind, in February 2021 Unicef, with the support of EU, initiated a project that would help young people be in contact with NADEL even in situations with no privacy, thanks to an innovative online chatbox support function that would run in parallel to the traditional phone line. They supported NADEL with the development of the software for the chat line, purchasing some additional equipment and also providing funds for the salaries of additional counsellors to manage the chat line.

Vesna explains that they have supported them also with capacity building, which included training for all counsellors, including both senior and new ones, and other service providers such as small NGO social workers – all service providers who might be in the position or already have the potential to engage in online counselling to share that knowledge. “In terms of capacity building, we provided them with the logistical support and modest financial contribution for the development of training manuals. The training was provided by the NADEL staff as they have extensive experience and very competent training personnel,” says Vesna.

“As a result of the social media campaign, the number of chat counselling sessions was three times larger than the previous month and the total number of visits to the NADEL website was larger than the overall number of contacts in the period from January to May.”

About the project

This initiative was possible thanks to the financial support of the European Union through the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), and in partnership with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, and the Centre for Protection of Infants, Children and Youth Belgrade.

The innovative online chat support for NADEL was launched with the support of the Programme for Mitigating the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Lives of Children and Families in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The Programme is a two-year initiative launched in 2021 by the Unicef regional office and the European Commission.

The purpose of the initiative is to strengthen national health, education, early childhood development, and child protection systems to ensure core services for vulnerable children and their families in the immediate and longer-term recovery response to COVID-19. Through this €5 million programme, 490,000 children and parents across the programme area are expected to have better access to public services that promote early childhood development, education, health, and protection as part of the COVID-19 recovery.

In addition to this support, Unicef, throuth and EU funded project, also supported NADEL to increase their visibility with awareness-raising about the existence of the service. Over the years NADEL had organised awareness-raising actions by visiting schools and sharing posters. However, according to Vesna, this strategy had not worked recently, as children now need to be reached through the social media that they regularly use.

The social media campaign was launched in June this year and the number of calls and other type of communication increased threefold as a result of the campaign.

Marina Bogdanović, a consultant on the Protection of Children from Violence, and Child Marriage Prevention with Unicef, explains that apart from the increase in contact with NADEL, the campaign was also a learning experience for them and for their partner on how to improve and innovate the programme. “As a result of the social media campaign, the number of chat counselling sessions was three times larger than the previous month and the total number of visits to the NADEL website was larger than the overall number of contacts in the period from January to May,” she says.