This month Epic Arts' Social Work and Child Protection Team convened 33 ChildSafe Agents at the Epic Arts Centre for a half-day training that built skills and community.
ChildSafe Agents are the backbone of Kampot's child protection system. They're not social workers. They're trusted community members; shopkeepers, teachers, neighbours who know what to look for and how to respond when children face abuse, neglect, exploitation or violence.
This meeting brought together experienced agents and newly recruited volunteers to strengthen that network, share knowledge and ensure every village in Kampot has someone children and families can turn to.
Building the Network: New Agents Learn Their Role
For the 21 newly selected ChildSafe Agents, this meeting was an intensive introduction to work that will define their role in their communities for years to come.
What ChildSafe Agents Do:
- Promote awareness of child protection in their communities
- Identify children at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, trafficking or unsafe migration
- Refer children and families to appropriate support services
- Report urgent concerns through the ChildSafe Hotline or relevant authorities
- Support inclusive practices for children with disabilities
- Collaborate with local authorities, schools, NGOs and community members
- Maintain confidentiality and accurate records when required
- Participate in ongoing trainings, meetings and awareness activities
The Code of Conduct is equally clear:
ChildSafe Agents must be role models. They send their own children to school. They promote the ChildSafe Hotline. They act in children's best interests. They never use violence, exploitation, gambling, drugs or commit acts against the law.
This isn't volunteer work anyone can do. It requires commitment, integrity and the trust of an entire community.
The Four Rights Every Child Deserves
A significant portion of the training focused on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), establishing the foundation every ChildSafe Agent needs: what children are entitled to and what adults must protect.
1. Right to Survival
Life, food, clean water, health care, shelter, a safe environment, name and nationality.
Example: Access to vaccination, nutrition and medical treatment.
2. Right to Development
Education, learning opportunities, play and recreation, arts and culture, family love, emotional and social development.
Example: Going to school and participating in activities that help children grow.
3. Right to Protection
Protection from violence, abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, child labour, trafficking, discrimination and substance abuse.
Example: Protecting children from physical punishment, sexual abuse and unsafe work.
4. Right to Participation
Expressing opinions, being listened to, joining community activities and child clubs, receiving and sharing information.
Example: Children sharing ideas in school or family discussions.
These rights apply to all children, including children with disabilities, without discrimination.
Recognizing the Four Types of Child Abuse
ChildSafe Agents learned to identify the warning signs of abuse, a skill that can mean the difference between intervention and ongoing harm.
Physical Abuse
Hitting, slapping, kicking, burning, beating, using objects or weapons to hurt a child, forcing dangerous physical activities.
Effects: Injuries, fear, trauma, disability or death.
Emotional (Psychological) Abuse
Insulting, humiliating, threatening, rejecting, isolating or ignoring a child. Making them feel worthless or unloved.
Effects: Low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, fear, poor development.
Sexual Abuse
Any sexual activity with a child: sexual touching, rape, showing pornography, online exploitation, forcing children into prostitution.
Effects: Trauma, shame, fear, sexually transmitted infections, long-term emotional harm.
Neglect
Failing to provide basic needs: food, shelter, medical care, supervision, education or ignoring children with disabilities.
Effects: Poor health, malnutrition, developmental delays, unsafe living conditions.
Child protection is both prevention and response. ChildSafe Agents are trained to recognize these forms of abuse early before situations escalate into crises.
Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)
All agents,new and experienced, received updated training on PSEA, reinforcing Epic Arts' zero-tolerance policy and ensuring every agent understands:
- A child is any person under 18 years old
- Sexual exploitation and abuse are never acceptable
- Reporting mechanisms exist to protect children and hold abusers accountable
- ChildSafe Agents must model ethical behavior and intervene when others don't
Supporting Children with Disabilities: Epic Arts' Guidelines
Epic Arts shared our guidelines for supporting and referring children with disabilities, ensuring ChildSafe Agents know how to:
- Contact Epic Arts when they identify a child with disability facing emergency needs
- Ensure early, safe and appropriate referral to relevant support services
- Promote inclusion, protection and well-being of children with disabilities
- Strengthen coordination between communities, local authorities and Epic Arts
Children with disabilities face heightened risks of abuse, neglect and exploitation. ChildSafe Agents are often the first to recognize when a child with a disability needs support, and knowing how to connect them to Epic Arts can change the trajectory of that child's life.
Real Stories from Experienced Agents
The most powerful part of the meeting came when experienced ChildSafe Agents shared stories from their work:
- Helped collect statistics on children with disabilities and vulnerable families so Epic Arts could provide educational materials, food packs and health services
- Connected people with disabilities to wheelchairs and limb orthoses
- Helped children cross streets to school safely when adults weren't available
- Provided information on orphans to Epic Arts for educational support
- Fed a homeless child and reunited him with his mother
- Reported children in need to Epic Arts for intervention
- Protected children who were victims of violence in schools
These aren't hypothetical scenarios. They're real interventions that happened because someone in the community was trained, aware and willing to act.
Challenges and Solutions: The Work Isn't Easy
ChildSafe Agents don't operate in ideal conditions. The meeting created space for honest discussion about the barriers they face:
Challenges identified:
- Limited community awareness of child protection issues
- Difficulties in case follow-up (families move, situations change, resources are limited)
- Communication barriers with deaf children and youth
- Some experienced agents not attending meetings
Solutions discussed:
- Continued training and capacity building
- Peer support networks among agents
- Better coordination with local authorities and Epic Arts
- Strengthening referral pathways
- Regular meetings to maintain engagement
Child protection work is hard. Acknowledging challenges openly helps agents feel supported, not alone.
Who Protects Children? Everyone.
One of the training's core messages: child protection is everyone's responsibility.
The Commune Committee for Women and Children includes:
- Commune Chief (Chairperson)
- Deputy Commune Chief (Vice Chairperson)
- Focal person for women and children
- Police chief
- School directors
- Health centre representatives
- Village chiefs
- Commune volunteers
- NGO representatives
But beyond formal structures, everyone has an obligation to protect children:
Government. Local authorities. Teachers. Community members. Neighbours. Families. Children themselves. NGO partners. Donors.
When everyone takes responsibility, children are safer.
The ChildSafe Hotline: Always Answered
ChildSafe Agents promote one number across Kampot:
📞 010 333 296 | 088 9333 296
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anonymous reports accepted. Urgent response guaranteed.
Anyone can call. Anyone should call when a child is at risk.
What Comes Next
The meeting concluded with planning the next ChildSafe Agent gathering in two months.
Between now and then, 33 agents return to their communities equipped with:
- Stronger knowledge of child rights and abuse recognition
- Clear referral pathways for children with disabilities
- Peer connections for support and problem-solving
- Confidence that Epic Arts and local authorities back their work
Why This Matters
Child protection doesn't happen in offices. It happens when the shopkeeper notices a child who stopped coming to school. When the neighbour hears something wrong and calls the hotline. When the teacher sees bruises and knows who to contact.
ChildSafe Agents are that first line of defence. They're not waiting for crises, they're preventing them. They're not ignoring warning signs, they're trained to recognize them.
And when they can't solve a problem alone, they know exactly where to turn.
This meeting was an investment in Kampot's children, through the 33 people committed to protecting them.
This work is made possible by Give A Hand, whose support strengthens community-based child protection across Kampot.
If you see a child at risk, don't wait. Call the ChildSafe Hotline: 010 333 296 | 088 9333 296.
Epic Arts' Social Work and Child Protection Team operates the ChildSafe network across Kampot City and Teuk Chhou District, training community-based agents, managing a 24/7 hotline, and coordinating with local authorities to ensure vulnerable children receive protection and support.