In the 17th episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Liubov Kolomieiets from Feminist Workshop discusses their project preventing sexual and gender-based violence through school-based sexuality education in Lviv, Ukraine.

The project operates in a context where sexuality education is absent from the national curriculum, officially resisted by the Ministry of Education, and widely treated as taboo, particularly in a city where religious communities strongly shape family attitudes. Working with children in public schools, Feminist Workshop delivers interactive sessions built as a flexible puzzle of activities rather than a fixed curriculum, adapting in real time to each group's age, background, and readiness to engage. All of this unfolds against the backdrop of war: displaced children, disrupted school days, sleepless nights, and young people who may have lost parents to the conflict, making Feminist Workshop's trauma-sensitive, inclusive approach not a methodological choice, but a necessity.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In the sixteenth episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Samuel Romero from the Down Syndrome Association of Valencia (ASINDOWN) discusses their project, Breaking Down Barriers, empowering children and young people with Down syndrome to prevent and respond to bullying and violence.

The project tackles the full spectrum of violence these children face, from the invisible early signs of exclusion and peer rejection, to cyberbullying and what Samuel identifies as institutional violence: the inaccessible protocols, minimising responses, and delayed interventions that leave children with Down syndrome systematically unprotected by the very systems designed to help them.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In the 15th episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Zsofia Karetka is joined by Anna Boukydis from Hintalovon Child Rights Foundation's Child Participation Programme, and two members of their Kids Colleague team, Lili and Nilla – the young people who actually led the creation of the courses, rather than simply featuring in them.

Hintalovon's Kids Colleagues is a group of 16 children aged 13 to 17 embedded as genuine partners across the foundation's work in Hungary. For the Daphne-CHILD programme, they designed two courses from scratch: an online course on child rights for 14 to 18-year-olds, and an in-person workshop guide for teachers working with children from 10 to 18. Lili and Nilla speak about the debates, the compromises, and what it really takes to make educational material that speaks to children – in their language, about things that directly affect their lives.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In the 14th episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Aliki Tzatha from ELIX Conservation Volunteers Greece discusses their SafeIng project – transforming entire school ecosystems into safe and inclusive communities for children with refugee, migrant, Roma, and special education needs in Athens.

The project confronts a Greek school culture shaped by frontal teaching and the absence of participatory practices, where violence along lines of race, class, gender, and appearance goes largely unchallenged. Working with 9 to 12-year-olds across three primary schools, ELIX delivers structured workshop cycles grounded in human rights education, democratic deliberation, multilingualism, and social-emotional learning – training teachers in tandem and gradually co-creating a classroom code of conduct with the children themselves. The work extends to parents and local communities, as illustrated by a schoolyard wall painted with "good morning" in over 15 languages: a simple act that turns children's hidden home identities into something to celebrate.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In this episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Anna Vashchuk from UA Mental Help discusses their project bringing psychological education to children and parents in the Bucha district of Ukraine, a community rebuilding after occupation while facing ongoing bombing, electricity cuts, and freezing temperatures.

With 76% of surveyed families having experienced traumatic events, the team learned they had to start not with the children but with the parents, offering practical self-care tools and the simple reassurance that what they feel is normal. For children, traditional lecture formats proved insufficient in a context of shelling alerts and blackouts, so the team developed an interactive quest built around real-life scenarios. When a family masterclass filled up within hours, it confirmed what the team had sensed: what families need most right now is time to gather and feel supported as a community. As Anna puts it: "Every day, they're living their childhood, and we won't have the chance to give them a different one."

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In this episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Paula Paçó and Anabela Reis from Instituto de Apoio à Criança (IAC) discuss their Listen2Act project – training young people to become peer educators in preventing violence against children in Portugal.

The project responds to alarming trends in Portugal, where two in three adults who work with children accept corporal punishment, and post-pandemic increases in violence have strained mental health across generations. Working through IAC's youth network, the project empowers 30 young people from Lisbon, Coimbra, and Évora to co-create toolkits and lead training for over 300 peers, families, and professionals. The young people drive every aspect: designing videos, leading focus groups, and crafting messages that resonate across audiences while remaining sensitive to the reality that some participants love the parents who harm them. IAC's approach balances this complexity with educational rather than punitive messaging, guided by Paula's advice to adults: "Stop and listen to your children," and Anabela's recognition that changing deeply entrenched cultural attitudes requires resilience – the willingness to "start over, and keep going."

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In this episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Oana Paraschiv from Asociatia Curcubeul Cunoasterii (Rainbow of Knowledge Association) discusses their Passport to Safety project – providing therapeutic support for children affected by violence in Medgidia, Romania.

The project confronts deeply entrenched beliefs in southeastern Romania, where corporal punishment remains normalised, and children witness bullying in schools. Working with younger children and teenagers – all of whom have either experienced or perpetrated violence – Rainbow of Knowledge delivers 14 months of intensive therapy through drawings, games, and intergenerational mentoring. The work extends to resistant parents and teachers, embracing Oana's guiding philosophy: change is incremental, "nothing that you say to a child goes by him," and by transforming small groups intensively over time, they create ripples that influence broader community attitudes.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.

In the tenth episode of the Daphne-CHILD Grantee Spotlight Series, Marilena Ioannidou from Vela Greece discusses their SAFE project (Support and Awareness for Future Empowerment) – creating child-friendly reporting systems for unaccompanied refugee children in Greece.

The project addresses the unique vulnerabilities refugee children face in camp settings: overcrowding, frequent movement between facilities, language barriers, and the profound challenge of building trust when both children and caregivers are constantly changing. Vela's digital reporting tool, co-created with children, offers multiple ways to report violence – through voice messages in their own language, written reports, or direct conversations with staff – recognising that refugee children come with vastly different literacy levels, linguistic backgrounds, and cultural understandings of what constitutes violence.

The project reveals that effective child protection in refugee contexts requires both flexible reporting mechanisms and rigorous internal procedures, ensuring every staff member can receive reports and respond consistently to each child individually despite working with large numbers. By piloting a system designed to be transferred to Greece's Ministry of Migration and Asylum for national implementation, Vela offers a scalable model for protecting refugee children across Europe's reception systems.

This podcast is part of a series aiming to showcase the vital and innovative work of our grantees in the Daphne-CHILD programme as they combat violence against children across Europe.