Care and safeguarding

Throughout all our work, and those we work with

Justice work happens in sectors where racism, gender-based violence, sexual harassment, and patriarchal power run through organisations, communities and the partnerships between them, and where the structures meant to respond are often the same ones that protect those causing harm.

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Transformative learning surfaces this harm, because as people come into conversation with their history and context, what has been done to them comes up. Surfacing it is not enough on its own, and can be dangerous if there is nowhere for it to go. So realife treats safeguarding and care as infrastructure that has to be built before the work begins, not as a policy filed and pointed at.

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realife builds care into the structure of the work: paid time and safety designed into Learning Landscapes processes and evaluations, and gender and safeguarding held within the work rather than hoped for.

Where specialist gender-based violence response and safeguarding capacity is needed, realife works alongside partners to build into existing capacities, contexts and challenges.​

Where this is happening

Care and safeguarding run through every Learning Landscapes process, partnership development and evaluation realife is part of.

 

The team brings trauma-informed expertise and has worked on safeguarding and care work across NGOs and institutions in southern Africa and Europe, as well as at the level of international policy and funders, and in how those policies hold up, or fail, in the realities people actually work in.

 

This work includes developing and accompanying the implementation of policy and procedure including contextual co-designed mechanisms, policy and procedures for free, prior and informed consent; grievances; protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment; indigenous land and knowledge rights; and gender action plans.

 

We integrate psycho-social support throughout, and undertake organisational and partnership work following principles of care and holistic safeguarding.