Every day hundreds of children contact the ISPCC’s Childline phone line and Childline Online service because they are worried, scared, upset, or just to talk.

Sometimes, it’s because a child has lost a loved one and is struggling to cope. Sometimes, bullying is so stressful they don’t know where to turn. Sometimes, violence at home has become unbearable. Or sometimes they just want to talk and tell you how their day was.

Making sure there’s an answer for each one of those 480,000 calls a year has been a constant struggle for the ISPCC. But now, with a commitment from Vodafone Foundation, those lines will be covered 24 hours a day, every day, for the next ten years.

Grania Long is head of Ireland’s leading child safety charity, ISPCC. She says ‘For every child who reaches us, there are many more who cannot. This partnership enables us to give every child the connection they need, when and where they need it most.’

As well as supporting the phone lines for a decade, the Foundation over the next five years will help Childline create new, more relevant ways for children to get help. Ways for young people - who are more comfortable with live chat apps than traditional voice calls - to get support in the middle of the night, or at a time that suits them.

Anne O’Leary, Vodafone Ireland CEO says 'We want to help bring the excellent services of Childline to all young people in Ireland. The first way we can help is to build an app to enable children to contact Childline by phone, text or online.’

The Vodafone Foundation’s commitment to ISPCC also includes supporting children who are bullied online, providing advice for children and parents on cyber safety. This starts with a wide range of educational modules for children, parents and teachers, which will be promoted through Vodafone’s retail shops and available online

And the Vodafone Foundation will help ISPCC add to the public debate on how Ireland’s laws and policies can be improved. The safety of children online is a growing problem – 72% of Irish children use the internet daily at home and one in five say they have been bothered by something online.

ISPCC Childline Promise to Children “We want every child in Ireland to know that Childline is there. There on their terms, whenever they need us. We want to ensure we have the best connections to children, all day, everyday. We won’t stop until every child is connected.”