ABOUT KANAF

‘Kanaf’ is an interdisciplinary, multi-agency child protection centre in Sharjah. It is established to provide prompt legal, psychological, medical services to child victims of physical and sexual abuse and witnesses thereof. The center will help standardise child protection measures and enable relevant entities to provide integrated referral and treatment services in a state-of-the-art facility, and in a safe, supportive environment.

Kanaf was established by the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, and it will be overseen by the Child Safety Department, an affiliate of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs.

It is inspired by the ‘Barnahus’ model that originated in Iceland in 1998. Literally meaning ‘Children’s Home’, this model has successfully provided treatment services to child abuse victims, based on an approach to reduce the number of interviews with abused children to only one, and conduct these interviews in a comforting and supportive environment.

Kanaf will bring together four key Sharjah organisations under one roof that will oversee and provide services for child abuse cases including the Sharjah Social Services Department, Sharjah Police, Sharjah Forensic Administration, Sharjah Public Prosecution.