Draft content for review and approval — not yet published to volunteers
Takaful Academy · Level 1
Working with Children
Non-negotiable rules that protect the child and protect you. If your volunteering brings you anywhere near children, this course is a requirement with no exceptions.
What you will learn
Module 1
Why these rules exist
This is not suspicion of you. It is a framework that protects children from harm, and protects you from any accusation.
🛑 The golden rule
Never be alone with a child in a closed space or out of sight of others — ever. If circumstances force it, stay in view and tell a colleague immediately. This single rule prevents most incidents and protects everyone involved.
Organisations worldwide follow the International Child Safeguarding Standards published by Keeping Children Safe (2024 edition), built on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Their core idea is simple: safeguarding is not one person’s responsibility but a system of four pillars working together.
1 · Policy
A written commitment to preventing harm, setting out what happens if an incident occurs.
2 · People
Clear responsibilities for every volunteer, and training so they understand and act — which is you, right now.
3 · Procedures
A child-safe environment through procedures applied in every activity, not only on special occasions.
4 · Accountability
Monitoring that ensures real application — because a policy nobody checks is not a policy.
Check your understanding
A child is crying and wants to talk to you, and the space is crowded and noisy. What is correct?
Module 2
Safe conduct
Clear boundaries let you be warm and professional at the same time.
✔ Safe behaviour
- Working in groups and open spaces
- Respectful, age-appropriate language
- Respecting the child’s privacy and body
- Treating all children equally
- Referring any concern to your organisation’s safeguarding focal point
- Written guardian permission before any photography
✘ Absolutely prohibited
- Being alone with a child out of sight
- Any unnecessary physical contact
- Personal contact with a child outside the activity
- Photographing or publishing a child’s image without permission
- Promising a child you will keep a secret
- Favouritism or gifts to one child over others
- Suggestive language or joking, however innocent it seems
⚠️ Why is favouritism prohibited?
Getting especially close to one child — even out of compassion — isolates them from peers, creates unhealthy dependence, and is also the pattern used by those who intend harm. That is why it is prohibited regardless of your intent.
Sensitive scenario
What is the right action?
A nine-year-old has become attached to you during the camp, always wants to sit beside you, and asks for your phone number to call you after the activity ends.
Module 3 · Mandatory
If a child discloses to you
A moment that may happen once in your volunteering life — and what you do in it matters enormously.
- Listen calmly, showing neither shock nor judgement — your face can silence them
- Do not promise secrecy: say “I will help you, and I will tell someone responsible who can protect you”
- Do not investigate or interrogate: no detailed or leading questions
- Reassure them it is not their fault, and that they did the right thing by speaking
- Record immediately what they said, in their own words, accurately and without your interpretation
- Report to your organisation’s safeguarding focal point the same day
- Never discuss the matter with anyone else
🛑 Why not investigate?
Detailed questions can make a child retell the event repeatedly and be harmed by it, and can unintentionally lead their answer, damaging any later formal process. Your job is to hear, record and report — not to verify.
⚠️ Organisation-specific field
Every organisation delivering this course must insert here the name and direct contact of its own child safeguarding focal point. Without this field the course is incomplete in practice.
Sensitive scenario
What is the right action?
After a child disclosed being hit at home, a fellow volunteer asks you: “What did the boy tell you? He looks upset.”
Module 4
Photography and publication
A single photograph can expose a child and their family to danger or stigma. The rules here are strict for a reason.
- No photography without prior written guardian permission — verbal consent is not enough
- Images are handed to the organisation and never posted to your personal account
- Blurring the face is not enough; clothing, place and context can still identify the child
- No photography in moments of vulnerability: crying, receiving aid, illness
- Consent to take part in an activity is not consent to be photographed — they are separate permissions
- A guardian can withdraw consent at any time
Sensitive scenario
What is the right action?
You took a lovely photo of children laughing, and one child’s guardian told you verbally “no problem, go ahead”. You want to post it on the organisation’s page to document the activity.
Standards this content is built on
- • International Child Safeguarding Standards — Keeping Children Safe (2024 edition)
- • UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- • IFRC Volunteering Policy (August 2022)
- • Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (2024 edition)
- • Do No Harm principle in humanitarian action