Child Protection

Across rural Gambia, many parents and caregivers lack the knowledge and skills to provide nurturing care. Infants and young children often miss out on early stimulation, positive discipline, and nutritious feeding. These are factors that fuel poor developmental outcomes, absenteeism, and even drop‑outs. 

A significant contributing factor is the lack of male caregiver involvement, as many men view child-rearing as primarily the responsibility of women. Deeply rooted in traditional gender roles, men are often seen as the breadwinners, while caregiving is perceived as “women’s work.” This perspective leads to men being less engaged in the day-to-day aspects of raising children, which limits the positive influence they can have on their children and perpetuates gender inequality within families. 

In response to this critical gap, ChildFund, with support from The World Bank implemented the Responsive and Protective Parenting (RPP) model in four regions, to strengthen parents’ and caregivers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) on nurturing care. 

While targeting all caregivers, it places special emphasis on engaging men—who traditionally shoulder less of the day‑to‑day nurturing role. In 2024, 1,620 parents and caregivers participated in these sessions equipping them with hands-on skills and knowledge on how to create stimulating play activities, craft toys from local materials, prepare nutritious meals from local cereals, and most importantly protect their children from any forms of abuse.

“Since the introduction of this parenting program in our community, male caregivers such as myself now understand very well that caring for a child is the role of both male and female caregivers. Initially, we, the male caregivers, believed that if we are going out to work and bringing our money back to the family, we are not supposed to take care of the children when they need attention at home. This was solely left for our wives and mothers to do. But now, as you can see me with my son, he is always with me and I don’t force him to go to the mother as I would always do before attending the sessions,” says Buba, a father of six in Nianija.

“One of the best things that I learnt from the parenting sessions is that we should not be beating our children. I was fond of beating my children, and sometimes I beat them so severely that they even suffered bruises. But since attending the sessions, I now stop beating them, and they get closer to me, and surprisingly, they do everything that I ask them to do. This program is very important in our children’s upbringing,” stated Alhagie Sallah, from Kerr Gibel community.

“For me, I now spend more time with my wife and the children at home, and I also make them toys using local materials as we were trained by the facilitators. We now understand that we don’t need to buy readymade toys which are available for sale and in towns far away from our village. In general, this parenting program has taught us a lot about how we should bring up our children in the best possible manner,” says Abdoulie,  a father of six, from Buduk community.