SaltMalawi Safeguarding statement

In recent years, awareness of and concern about safeguarding has grown as high-profile scandals involving abuse have come to light in the entertainment, relief and sporting arenas. There have also been instances of abuse in churches and mission organisations.

Abuse, defined in part as manipulation, exploitation, domination and bullying (coercive and controlling behaviour), is incompatible with the gospel of love, compassion and grace proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles and so any organisation that has contact or works with children and adults at risk must ensure they are properly cared for and protected. Children are abused by adults, other children and young people. Adults are usually abused by other adults. It happens in every social, religious and cultural setting and can involve leaders, teachers and workers. We should not think “it could never happen in my organization”, because it might!

Our motivation in producing Safeguarding Policies is based on our desire that God is glorified in all that we do, and because we are committed to upholding principles of justice, support and offering protection to those who are weak and vulnerable. While we seek to guard the organizational reputation of SaltMalawi and the Church of the Disciples of Jesus Christ, our primary motivation is to ensure that we adhere to the highest possible practices of safeguarding to provide assurance that moral leadership, systems, culture and the transparency needed to protect vulnerable people are in place.

We are aware that seeking to impose a UK model of safeguarding will not be successful in contexts where policy makers work from a different legislative framework and where there may be widely differing understandings of what constitutes abuse. Thus, SaltMalawi is committed to developing a safeguarding framework based on best practice in safeguarding within the UK context which can be combined with the knowledge and understanding from our partners about their local context, infrastructures, culture and beliefs.

When visiting Malawi we review with CDJ their experience of implementing and monitoring their agreed safeguarding policy.