Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

The Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Promoting Early Childhood Development for Young Children on the Move in Northern Central America project aims to identify and learn from community-based and small national organizations leading community-based responses to address the early childhood development (ECD) and protection needs of displaced Guatemalan children aged 0 to 6 and their families. 

Children and families continue to experience displacement across the Northern Triangle of Central America in record numbers. 

Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala exhibit complex mixed movements as countries of origin, transit, destination, and return. Displacement and migration are driven by factors such as socioeconomic and political injustice, high levels of violence and social conflict, including gender-based violence, climate change-induced environmental degradation, land conflict, mega infrastructure projects, food insecurity, economic inequality, and insufficient educational and livelihood opportunities or structural discrimination of Indigenous, Garífuna, Afro-descendants, LGBTIQ+ individuals, and other minorities. 

These children and families share a heightened vulnerability to various human rights violations along their migration journeys, including abuse by police forces or criminal groups, exploitation, detention, gender-based violence, physical hardship, and discrimination. Many suffer psychological distress or trauma from their journey, having faced harrowing experiences crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In many cases, children and families struggle to reintegrate into their communities of origin after being returned from Mexico or the United States. 

Additionally, despite affecting hundreds of thousands of children, internal displacement, the disruption of family structures and community identity due to mass migration, and the reintegration challenges facing returnees have received less attention from the international community compared to situations affecting people in transit or Guatemalans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

International child rights law underscores that all children have a right to survival, safety, and access to protection and education regardless of their migration status. In Latin America, national and local governments bear the duty to safeguard the rights of children and families on the move, irrespective of their origin or destination. However, child welfare, education, and protection systems—already fragile before the COVID-19 pandemic—have been overwhelmed and unable to respond to the large scale of needs. While national civil society organizations and community-based initiatives are crucial for establishing and maintaining protective environments for these children, they are frequently underfunded, understaffed, and stretched beyond their capacities. Amid such tremendous challenges and constraints, community-based organizations are innovating solutions to complex issues affecting children on the move, often with little support or infrastructure to coordinate programs, influence policies, and measure results.

Against this backdrop, the Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Promoting Early Childhood Development for Young Children on the Move in Northern Central America project aims to identify and learn from community-based and small national organizations leading community-based responses to address the early childhood development (ECD) and protection needs of displaced Guatemalan children aged 0 to 6 and their families. These organizations offer integrated services within education, social service, child welfare, or protection sectors, and advocate for the rights of young children and their families, including those displaced, at risk of being displaced, or those facing challenges to reintegrating after being returned from the United States or Mexico.

This collaborative project is funded by the Bainum Family Foundation's Global Education Fund (GEF), which seeks to increase equity in access to quality early care and education for young children worldwide by supporting and learning from local community-led projects serving children and families. The goal is to share knowledge and innovation through co-creation.