Schools should be a place where children are safe to learn, grow and thrive to their full potential. During COVID-19, however, more than 1.5 billion children were forced from the classroom – leaving children more vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse than ever before. In Guatemala, Save the Children had developed a diploma course to support teachers and parents to keep schools safe – and during COVID-19, staff snapped into action to adapt this course to fit a drastically new context. 

 In this episode, Lyda Guarin, Save the Children’s Child Protection Regional Adviser for Latin America, spoke with programming staff Idalma Choquin and Marjorie Bosque in Save the Children’s Guatemala Country Office. The three explored how they adapted the course for parents and teachers to narrated videos, disseminating those products through WhatsApp groups and other platforms. They also discussed the importance of providing additional one-on-one support when necessary, and integrating group phone calls to reach parents and teachers that needed them.