LEADS

LEADS was founded as a relief agency in 1978 in response to human suffering caused by natural disasters as well as the civil war. In 1995, LEADS strengthened its focus on child protection when founding ESCAPE (Eradicating Sexual Child Abuse, Prostitution and Exploitation). Since then, LEADS has become one of the leading national civil society organisations engaged in protecting children from violence, abuse and neglect. Thereby, its core programme focus area is Child Protection, through Community Transformation, Care for Survivors, Training and Advocacy. Community Transformation focuses on Child-Centred Community Develo pment, family strengthening at community level and protection of the environment. LEADS’ specialised programme - Care for Survivors, provides residential therapeutic services to survivors of child abuse in Colombo and Jaffna, as well as non-residential services (including counselling, family support, legal support and support in accessing medical treatment, education and/or vocational training) in Colombo, Jaffna and Badulla. LEADS has developed its work in advocacy over the past 10 years. LEADS employs their extensive knowledge and experience on child protection to document gaps in the system and come up with specific proposals for change. They employ a constructive engagement approach aimed at building the capacity of government authorities/officials and thereby strategically directing and facilitating the relevant authorities in bringing about a positive change. It is actively engaged in national-level networks with like-minded civil society organisations, pushing for policy changes enforcing rights particularly relating to safeguarding children. Given that Sri Lanka is a high-risk disaster-prone nation, LEADS also has a mandate as a crisis response agency. Situations of disaster will be an exception, and the work on disaster response focuses on recovery for children, so that the child has a better future and is protected from vulnerability.