BMJ 2022 ; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o781 (Published 23 March 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;376:o78 Lucie Cluver , professor of child and family social work 1; Ben Perks , head of campaigns and advocacy and senior fellow 2 3; Sabine Rakotomalala , technical officer 4 and Wadih Maalouf , programme manager 5 Author affiliations Evidence based parenting support is needed for families in both sudden and protracted crises, to help protect children from adverse outcomes The images of...

Most people I know remember the school visit of an elderly, and usually elegant, senior citizen with a slight accent. Sometimes showing a tattooed number on a forearm, they shared their direct experience as survivors of Hitler’s concentration camps.The quiet dignity and enduring resilience stunned us into silence and stayed with us for the rest of our lives. We grew up in the shadow of the holocaust. We assumed that what was right and wrong had been settled. That in democracies at least,...

The parenting 'vaccine' The world is waiting for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. In anticipation of successful trial results, preparations are being made for an unprecedented effort to achieve universal coverage and protection. But the interim measures to mitigate COVID-19 have brought their own severe and negative aftershocks. Global lockdowns and closures of schools and protective services have shone light on the vulnerability of children. Challenges of parenting under the strain of the...

21st March 2002, Afghan New Year, was the most humbling and memorable day of my working life. I was coordinating a “Back To School” campaign in the Northern Afghanistan, and the 21st was the target date for opening of schools. This was the first major national reform after after a post-Taliban peace agreement signed a few months earlier. Rebuilding education was seen as a peace dividend for the Afghan people and a symbol of hope for their children on the first day of the first peaceful...

Amidst the fear and uncertainty of the Covid19 lockdown in China, 26 year old Lele experienced something more terrifying than the virus itself. Her husband fashioned a weapon from a kitchen stool and beat her semi-conscious as she held her 11 month old baby in her arms. There was nowhere to go, no services to support, no possibility to flee. She had to spend several more weeks with her abuser before she could reach safety. On the other side of the world in Greenland, the capital city banned...