OVC Support Toolkit  >  Quality Improvement 

Listening to the Voices of Children

What services can make a difference for children and how should they be provided?

While experts offer many valuable insights about this question, perhaps the best way to find out is to ask the children themselves . Here are some insights children have offered when asked what kind of care they want and need :

• I want help finding my way forward.
• I want to feel safe when I walk to school.
• I want to make sure someone takes care of the street children.
• To be sure of two good meals a day would be enough for me. Children in Namibia

Creating a space for children, especially older children, to take a lead in their care and their lives is not only appropriate developmentally, it is also very much aligned with the quality improvement principle of focusing on the client. This means the process of care, from standard-setting to implementation, to evaluation, should engage children so that their perspective is incorporated in the outcomes and how services will be delivered.

One way to include children’s perspectives is to hold a children’s input workshop. The Children’s Input Workshop provides a detailed guide that addresses topics such as selecting the children, identifying a location for the workshop, creating the right environment, and having older children serve as facilitators. A sample agenda for a workshop with a description of how to carry out each session is also provided.

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