Andrea Espirito Santo is our new Child Safeguarding Adviser and leads Keeping Children Safe’s Brazil programme. Her addition to the team is a key part of our plan to expand our support into Brazil and offer resources in Portuguese such as training, mentoring, certification and quality assurance.
She has advocated for child safeguarding all through her career, which has included implementing education programmes for Africa and Latin America, supporting international faith-based organisations and providing care to refugees in Thailand.
In this brief interview, we learnt more about her professional experiences and what inspires her about child safeguarding.
What inspired you to join Keeping Children Safe?
I knew I wanted to work for children safeguarding ever since I first learnt about it 15 years ago and all through my career I have used and shared Keeping Children Safe’s resources. Child safeguarding is my passion and I am committed to seeing it implemented globally and specially in Brazil with Portuguese materials.
What are the main goals of the Keeping Children Safe programme in Brazil?
Our goal is to embed a child safeguarding programme at all levels in Brazil in Portuguese. This includes current research, finding appropriate partners and offering courses.
I love my country, Brazil. I have travelled to all its five regions to provide training, collaborate with local organisations, meet children and connect with different communities. I have achieved a good understanding of the current challenges and foresee a lot of opportunities, and I am looking forward to seeing the local organisations setting policies and implementing the standards.
How do you hope to contribute to Keeping Children Safe’s mission?
Being committed to the cause of safeguarding children and to children’s rights, being diligent to do my job with excellence, taking every opportunity to ensure the implementation of our objectives and the mission of KCS which is also my own. I value each organisation that wants to learn, establish and develop international child safeguarding standards and I will guide them so that their process is fruitful.
Why is child safeguarding important to you?
It is very important as we have children everywhere and they could be at risk of harm if every level of the society does not know how to behave appropriately and contribute to their development without abuse. Abuse against children happens when society least expects it- from extreme situations such as natural disasters, to everyday situations in many organisations where volunteers and employees are supposed to protect children but mistreat them. That is why children safeguarding work is so important. We need a safeguarding culture that has the rights of the children as a priority to put an end to violence.