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The Child-friendly Catholic Schools Study in Zimbabwe (CCSS-Z) is a mixed methods study into an intervention that seeks to prevent and respond to violence against children in Catholic Primary schools in Zimbabwe, designed and implemented by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC).

The ZCBC Child Safeguarding Intervention for primary schools builds on the prior development of a national child safeguarding policy for the Catholic Church and its associated institutions. Following a small pilot in Bulawayo, this programme will be the first comprehensive intervention for child safeguarding implemented by the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe within their schools It involves actors within the Catholic Church, schools administration, teachers, pupils and community-members to raise awareness about violence against children, offers training and capacity building in alternative discipline methods and in identifying and responding to violence in schools. The aim being to bring to life the national policy into the daily culture and practice of Catholic primary schools.

The CCSS-Z will support the design and implementation of the intervention at all stages. Research methods include qualitative approaches to support intervention design and refinement, M&E and a process evaluation and survey development for a pilot trial and an impact evaluation. This will offer findings into this intervention to prevent violence in Catholic schools in Zimbabwe, and into faith-based approaches to preventing violence in schools more broadly.