Following 15 years of professional experience in the international child protection sector,  I have seen first-hand how children alive today, and particularly children in the Global South or those facing adversity, are struggling to cope in a world characterized by economic, political, social and ecological instability as a result of Covid-19, conflict and climate collapse. Faced with these systemic disruptions, calls around the decolonization of aid are gaining ground, focused around dismantling historic systems of oppression, exclusion and ‘white saviour’ mentality that have permeated the international development sector since its inception. My research sets out to explore, using participatory methods with children, the implications of the decolonisation of aid for international child protection actors, with a specific focus on how understandings of violence against children evolve through the encounter with the ‘slow violence’ of climate collapse.