Washington, D.C., October 31, 2025 – More than 40 representatives from Ministries of Health in 19 Latin American countries and other partners participated in the third and final session of the Subregional Training on Health Care for Child and Adolescent Survivors of Violence, following a series of hybrid meetings organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) with the support of the Government of Canada and in collaboration with UNICEF and UNFPA.
This training series, which took place between July and October 2025, aimed to strengthen the capacity of health personnel in Latin America to safely and empathetically identify, care for, and refer child and adolescent survivors of violence, in accordance with the commitments made by Member States during the World Ministerial Conference to End Violence against Children (Bogotá, 2024).
Following requests from countries in the Americas, PAHO developed a series of subregional training sessions divided into three stages. The first stage introduced participants to addressing violence within the health system and PAHO's recommendations. The second in-person workshop allowed for a deeper exploration of the content and introduced tools for designing and evaluating training programs on violence against children and adolescents (VCNNA).
During the final session (October 28-29), participants reviewed the progress made throughout the training cycle, shared best practices, and analyzed opportunities and barriers to implementing training programs at the national level. The workshop also fostered the exchange of experiences among Latin American countries, building a support network and developing a unified and effective approach to addressing violence.
Regional priorities were also identified, such as the institutionalization of frontline support (ANIMA AA), the strengthening of clinical protocols and sectoral policies, and the reinforcement of referral pathways and information systems to improve the quality of data on violence in health services.
The representatives agreed that improving the quality of health services in response to violence requires ongoing training for frontline staff, as well as sustainable resources and robust institutional frameworks that ensure the implementation of protocols.
Violence against children and adolescents remains a public health priority for the countries of the region. PAHO is developing a new regional online course to strengthen health services' responses to violence against children and adolescents in Latin America, which will be available in 2026 on the PAHO Virtual Campus, along with other implementation tools to improve the health system's response to all forms of violence.
