Megjashi – North Macedonia

The operation of the SOS helpline is firmly grounded in the principles of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which emphasizes the children’s rights to privacy and protection against injury. The principle of confidentiality and anonymity thereby is at the core of the work. For that reason, no statement of SOS beneficiaries is asked; instead, a statement by the SOS operator provides valuable insight.

Megjashi’s SOS helpline is a member of Child Helpline International, which is very important for us, as this network is a strategic partner of the European Commission and Directorate-General for Justice.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the calls increased significantly, and our partner SC Kosovo understood our need and approved to engage a psychologist that would have been full time committed to this service. In the second half of 2020, this proved to be right decision as there were many efficiently resolved cases and cooperation with the institutions excelled. As an exemplary case, was the one related to domestic violence (father physically maltreated his three children) reported by a relative. The psychologist – SOS operator in a long process of several counselling conversations gained the trust and permission of the caller to contact the Centre for Social Work (CSW)- its Emergency Intervention Team which lead to a positive outcome for children.

“In addition to the eight-hour daily operations of the helpline, it was necessary to be on duty after these hours, and be available on the line 24/7. This contributed to solving several cases, where there was violence against a child, and one of them is the one where the aunt reported the violence. The joint action of the Emergency intervention team of the Centre for social work, the police and Megjashi, the children were rescued.” – Violeta, psychologist-operator of the Megjashi’s SOS helpline