Effective date: September 30, 2026 Last updated: September 30, 2026
Special Haven (“we,” “us,” or “our”) provides free emotional support and crisis counseling to parents and caregivers of children with special needs across Nigeria. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and your rights under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) and the rules issued under it by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
We wrote this policy to actually be read, not just published. If anything here is unclear, you can always ask us directly.
SPECIAL HAVEN CARE, a non-profit organisation registered in Nigeria.
Our crisis line and counseling services are intended for caregivers 18 years and older. If you are under 18, you are still welcome to reach out, and we will help you find the right support, including involving a trusted adult where appropriate.
You do not need a formal diagnosis for your child to use Special Haven. If you are caring for a child with a developmental, physical, or intellectual difference, our services are here for you.
Your identity and contact details: name, phone number, email address, and WhatsApp number, if you share them with us.
Information about your child or the person you care for: the special need or diagnosis, age, and any details you choose to share during a call, chat, or counseling session. This is sensitive personal data under the NDPA, and we treat it with extra care, described in section 6.
Information about you as a caregiver: anything you share about your own emotional or mental state during a support conversation. This is also sensitive personal data.
Technical information: your device type, browser, and how you use our website, collected through cookies and similar tools when you allow it.
Information you give us directly: for example, when you donate, volunteer, register for an event, or submit a caregiver story for publication.
Directly from you, through phone calls, live chat, WhatsApp messages, contact forms, event registrations, and donations.
Automatically, through cookies and analytics when you browse our website, only where you have given consent for non-essential cookies.
The NDPA requires us to have a valid legal reason, called a lawful basis, for everything we do with your personal data. Ours are:
Much of what caregivers share with us, details about a child’s diagnosis, or about your own mental health, counts as sensitive personal data under the NDPA. We give it extra protection: only trained staff can access it, we never use it for advertising or marketing, and we never sell it to anyone, for any reason.
What you tell us stays between you and your counselor. We will not report it to anyone, and we do not share it with government agencies, employers, or family members without your permission.
There are two exceptions, and we believe in being upfront about both. First, if we believe you, your child, or someone else is at immediate risk of serious harm, we may need to act to keep everyone safe, which can include contacting emergency services. Second, if Nigerian law, or a valid court order, requires us to disclose specific information, we are legally obligated to comply.
This includes our responsibilities under the
Child’s Rights Act 2003 and other applicable child protection laws in Nigeria, which may require us to report suspected abuse or serious neglect of a child to the appropriate authorities.
Our team: trained counselors and staff, who are bound by confidentiality agreements as a condition of working with us.
Service providers: [for example, our website host, phone and chat provider, and donation payment processor], who only process your data on our instructions, under a written data processing agreement, exactly as the NDPA requires.
Authorities: where the law requires it, for example, in response to a valid court order, or to protect someone’s immediate safety.
If any of our service providers store or process information outside Nigeria, we only allow this where that country offers an adequate level of data protection, or where we have put appropriate safeguards in place, as required under the NDPA’s rules on cross border data transfer.
We keep your information only for as long as we need it.
Special Haven’s crisis line and counseling services are intended for adult caregivers, 18 years and older. If you are under 18 and reach out to us, we will still listen and help you find the right support, and we encourage you to involve a parent, guardian, or trusted adult where it is safe to do so.
Where you share information about your own child in the course of seeking support, we treat that information with the same care and confidentiality described in this policy, and we never use it for anything beyond supporting you.
You have the right to:
To use any of these rights, contact us HERE. We will respond within the timeframe required by the NDPA. If you are ever unhappy with how we have handled your information, you also have the right to complain directly to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
Our website only uses essential cookies by default, the kind needed to keep the site secure and working properly. Any other cookies, for example, to understand how visitors use our site, are only switched on if you give us clear, opt-in permission first.
We may update this policy from time to time, for example, as our services grow or the law changes. We will post the updated version here with a new “last updated” date, and where a change is significant, we will make that clear on our website.
Questions, requests, or concerns about your personal data: Click HERE to contact us.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC): ndpc.gov.ng, for complaints that we have not resolved to your satisfaction.
