All area program offices have diligently carried out the community capacity enhancement interventions with a profound focus on child protection because it lays the basis for the success of their overall objectives. The general public and the target communities in particular have been made aware of the protection needs of children.Various forums or strategies, such as community conversation, coffee ceremonies, workshops, discussion forums, production and dissemination of IEC materials, and different media have been utilized by the seven area program offices in collaboration with various stakeholders to raise awareness of all concerned.

In the reporting period, in all the seven area program offices, 137 community conversation groups were established and these groups held bi-weekly and monthly discussions on the twelve child protection indicators including child labor abuse, child trafficking, child migration, child sexual abuse and exploitation, disability as well as the consequences of child abuse and neglect. To mark the importance of such discussions, more than 6815 community members in the target areas participated. Moreover, more than 3169 children at schools participated in peer discussions, of which 1777 were girls, and more than 3494 community members were sensitized about child protection through workshops.The awareness raising sessions have brought better attitudinal changes on the issues of child protection indicators as well as the consequences of child abuse and neglect. The effect could better be explained in each APO: