Every year, thousands of unaccompanied foreign minors arrive in Europe in search of protection. Welcoming them are guardians, who play a crucial role but often face complex conditions and have limited resources. Funding, data, and adequate tools are lacking, while the vulnerabilities of those arriving alone can intertwine with disabilities, past traumas, and difficulties in integration. Strengthening guardians’ skills and creating a coordinated, sustainable support network is therefore a priority.
The GUIDE project is working in this direction. This project supports guardians of unaccompanied minors, particularly those with disabilities, helping them acquire the skills and knowledge needed to ensure appropriate support. Through training activities, GUIDE promotes practical tools and spaces for dialogue that place the best interests of the child at the centre.
To better understand daily challenges and identify possible solutions, it is essential to listen directly to those carrying out this role. In a new video for GUIDE, we collected the voices of a guardian and a trainer from Ukraine, both of whom participated in the project’s training activities. Their testimonies clearly show the commitment and responsibility required, while also highlighting the urgent need for a stronger and more coordinated system at the European level.
Through their experiences, valuable recommendations emerge to improve the protection of unaccompanied minors: more training opportunities, dedicated resources, and a more structured support network. Listening to these perspectives is a key step towards building a system capable of guaranteeing rights and a future to those who arrive alone in search of safety.
Click on CC to add subtitles in Bulgarian, English, Italian, Polish or Ukrainian.
About the project
GUIDE – Supporting Guardians of Unaccompanied Children is a project funded by AMIF-2023-TF2-AG-CALL-06-CHILDREN; AMIF Action Grant Budget-Based.
Partners
- EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS FOR PE (Belgium, coordinator)
- EUROCHILD (Belgium)
- IASIS (Greece)
- SDRUZHENIE NATSIONALNA MREZHA ZA DETSATA (Bulgaria)
- Imago Foundation (Poland)
- Fundacja Save the Children International (Poland)
- TENENET OZ (Slovacchia)
- CESIE (Italy)
- DIMOS EGALEO (Greece, associated partner)
- Save the Children Europe (Belgium, associated partner)
- SAVE THE CHILDREN ITALIA ONLUS ASSOCIAZIONE (Italy, associated partner)
- Europsky institut regionalneho rozvoja, n.o. (Slovacchia, associated partner)
- TRNAVSKA UNIVERZITA V TRNAVE (Slovacchia, associated partner)
For further information
Read more about the project. Contact Fabiana Adamo: fabiana.adamo@cesie.org.
