International Child Development Programme

ICDP is a competence-building organization in the field of psycho-social and educational care of children at high risk. Our work is directed towards vulnerable children, their caregivers and families. The aim of the programme is to strengthen parents' and caregivers’ involvement with their children in a positive way, to give them confidence in their own capacity as carers, to facilitate those relationships that support children’s development and to prevent those relationships and conditions that may lead to neglect and abuse of children. In this way, our programme is closely linked to the work of promoting children's rights and through its emphasis on empathy and compassion for the other, it also contributes to peace building processes. ICDP is a flexible programme that has been tested out in different societies all over the world. ICDP is working in a community-based way, by training and mobilising resource persons in local networks and organisations so that they can spread the ICDP programme to caregivers in their own communities. Through this approach, we are able to reach more caregivers, families and children at risk than if we used the traditional clinical or institutional approach employed by many of the other NGOs working in this field.