THE state of children, particularly underprivileged girls, in some parts of the Northern Region, is not only lamentable but also distressing. They often suffer from neglect as a result of poverty, ignorance or sheer wickedness by some guardians and family members.
Most communities in the region practise child fostering where young girls under the ages of 10 are sent to their aunties or other family members for grooming instead of being sent to school.
In some cases the fostered children are maltreated and molested by their guardians for the least offence.
As a result, majority of them are compelled to flee home to the southern sector due to lack of job opportunities in the north, to engage in menial work, to earn income to buy their personal effects and also acquire vocational skills.
Others are also trafficked across the borders to engage in all sorts of neck and back breaking jobs to enrich their masters’ purses instead of being in school.
In most cases, those who are lucky to be in school are convinced by their friends and relatives to eventually drop out to join the bandwagon.
At the end of their toil, they often have nothing, but diseases and unwanted pregnancies to show for their long years of hustling. They come back home with all kinds of diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
Some arrive from their sojourn with miserable and innocent looking children strapped on their aching backs with only polythene bags to show.
It is for these reasons that a Tamale based non-governmental organisation, Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), is equipping children of school age who find themselves out of school for various reasons with vocational skills to help stem the tide of child trafficking and child labour in some selected districts in the region.
Under the initiative, dubbed Next Generation Programme (NGP), Child Surveillance Teams (CSTs) have been established in all the 20 communities where the project is being executed in the region.
Members of the teams are to supplement efforts at the local level to prevent child trafficking and also lead community efforts at finding lasting and culturally appropriate responses to enhancing child welfare.
They are to be provided with bicycles to facilitate their work in the respective communities.
The project is co-ordinated by Comic Relief, a UK Charity. The beneficiary districts are Savelugu/Nanton and West Mamprusi.
The three-year project would support 1,600 girls in formal school with learning materials while 1,200 girls would also be equipped with employable skills after which they would be offered working tools.
The programme manager of RAINS, Mr Alhassan Musah, announced this when he presented the first tranche of GH¢12,000 to the two districts in Tamale at the weekend.
He noted that previous interventions to stem child trafficking and labour by other organisations rather focused on government officials and opinion leaders instead of targeting rural and marginalised communities.
The manager noted that as a result most of the information remained sporadic with little impact on educating families and children, stressing, ‘‘it is time to shift focus.’’
According to Mr Musah, community involvement in reversing the negative trend was crucial for which reason it required the establishment and reinforcement of community structures for awareness creation and monitoring.
The manager further pledged the commitment of his outfit to collaborate with the Attorney General and departments in charge of children’s affairs to build the capacities of members of the CSTs in their bid to extend opportunities to marginalised children.
‘‘We also call on the respective district assemblies to support the CSTs and further ensure that the whole concept finds place in their plans and policies,’’ he emphasised.
On behalf of the beneficiaries the West Mamprusi District Chief Executive, Mr Sulemana Nabila, expressed appreciation to their benefactors for their immense support which he said would complement the government’s efforts at developing the education sector and child welfare.
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