Safeguarding Children Celebrates 10 Years!

Kia ora whānau,

I can’t believe that Safeguarding Children are celebrating ten years of empowering people to protect the children of New Zealand from abuse. What an incredible ten years it has been! What started out as three nurses and a detective standing up for what they believed in, that children have the right to be safe and that child abuse is preventable, has developed into one of New Zealand’s leading providers of child protection education, guidance and prevention services. In addition, we are incredibly proud to be New Zealand’s leading provider of online child protection training.

From the start, we knew we had to mobilise a whole community; we also knew that nothing would stop us. Despite full days at work and in our own time, week after week, we set out in a minibus across the Nelson Tasman region, offering free child protection training to anyone who wanted to attend. We put out the call to action, and people attended in droves; what a humbling and inspiring experience! People told us that “everyone needed to have this training,” and the voices of the community led us to establish a registered charity. Safeguarding Children was born. And, as they say, the rest is history!

My personal message to everyone is to never give up on your dreams. Embrace your tenacity and passion because it is those two things that inspire others.

Ngā mihi maioha,

Willow

Below are ten things Safeguarding Children would like to celebrate and share with you:

	The people who have attended our training – 24,000 from across New Zealand who want to protect our tamariki and rangatahi. These people are our heroes.
	The organisations who have stepped up to our challenge to create child-safe organisations.
	The stories we hear of how we have made a difference and helped people prevent and stop child abuse.
	Our incredible team!
	Our incredible board!
	Working in partnership with people, organisations and communities.
	Advocating for children.
	The reach and popularity of our online courses.
	Child protection policies and procedures Safeguarding Children have helped develop.
	Becoming a trusted point of education and expertise on child safety, child protection and well-being in New Zealand.