Today’s Children. Tomorrow’s Hope.

Maestral International’s mission is to provide cutting-edge, relevant and effective technical expertise that helps communities and nations to protect children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect, while ensuring that all of their children are cared for in safe and appropriate family or alternative care settings. We envision a world where every child is able to reach his or her full potential. Working with a wide range of partners, we join forces to promote the achievement of all children’s best interests.

 

Child well-being is a cornerstone of sustainable development, driving the long-term prosperity and security of communities and nations. Research consistently demonstrates that when children are protected, they achieve better health and education outcomes, earn higher incomes, and contribute more robustly to economic growth and poverty reduction. Conversely, adverse childhood experiences are closely linked to violence, extremism, social instability, and the root causes of migration. At Maestral, we champion policies and programs that prioritize the youngest and most vulnerable, delivering measurable economic and social returns that compound over time.

We Identify

Identifying national level opportunities to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families by promoting and facilitating policy dialogue and change.

We Map

Mapping and assessing national, regional and local child protection systems, and identifying actions and programs required to improve child welfare and protection.

We Evaluate

Advancing understanding of what works through effective monitoring and evaluation, dissemination of lessons learned, and research and evidence-building.

We Facilitate

Facilitating networks of organizations, policymakers, public and private agencies, and regional and global organizations to join forces to support a common vision for change.

Recent News

October 31, 2023

A celebration of the journey to family care: Catholic women religious gather in Guatemala and share their journey of transformation

By Sully Santos and Kelley Bunkers     August 7th-9th, 2023, Changing the Way We Care in Guatemala organized a regional event that brought together leaders and representatives of Catholic congregations from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Peru, in Antigua, Guatemala. The three-day event was attended by 29 Catholic sisters belonging to nine different congregations […]

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April 4, 2023

Including Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) in Violence Against Children (VAC) prevention and response

By Doreen Alaro & Lenora Borg   As children across the globe spend more of their time online, exacerbated by global lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important that governments have clear online violence prevention and response strategy and action. In 2021 UNICEF Uganda contracted Maestral to conduct a full review of the existing information, […]

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March 31, 2023

Strengthening national care systems through evaluation

  By Mari Hickmann   Children thrive in safe, nurturing families. However, children are sometimes separated from their families, which may profoundly affect their development and expose them to exploitation and violence[1]. The system to care for children can be assessed and strengthened to deliver services to support children and families. For example, standards can […]

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“A hundred children, a hundred individuals who are people—not people-to-be, not people of tomorrow, but people now, right now—today.”

—Janusz Korczak