Children suffer first, often for life, when political and policy changes undercut community health, education, and safety. Among Harvard’s efforts to counter and resist such risks is the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Harvard-UNICEF Child Protection Certificate Program (CPC). Launched in 2014 as a partnership with UNICEF, with funding from philanthropist G. Barrie Landry, the program now awards a Child Protection Certificate to Harvard graduate students from across the University and select UNICEF “Landry Fellows” who complete a year-long program of pre-approved coursework. Now entering its fourth year, the program has “grown exponentially,” said FXB Research Director, Professor Jacqueline Bhabha during this week’s awards ceremony for the 2017 cohort of twenty students. FXB’s new report on the exploitation of migrant children in Greece highlights the need for trained experts in child protection.
FXB is currently revising the curriculum with a goal for more global roll-out through HarvardX, executive education, and supplemental resources. As part of these efforts, FXB is working in partnership with the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI) toward innovative ideas to enhance and advance the program’s global reach.
“Lives saved and suffering alleviated is the measure of success,” said G. Barrie Landry, who lauded the program as “historic and unique” in her comments to the 2017 graduates. The curriculum’s success will depend much on feedback and wisdom from its alumni. To this end Landry Fellow, Truc Nguyen, a child protection/justice specialist from UNICEF Vietnam invited her fellow students, faculty, and administrators gathered in the FXB atrium at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health on May 2, “Please keep us informed and keep us involved.”