NGO TAKES STEPS TO CHECK CHILD EXPLOITATION (PAGE 20)

A TAMALE BASED non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) has come out with workable strategies to prevent child trafficking and exploitation in some parts of the Northern Region.
Some of the measures adopted by the organisation include the donation of free school uniforms, shoes and other learning materials to children, offering of vocational and business management training and micro-credit facilities to some poor households.
RAINS also intends to work closely with district assemblies and the Department of Social Welfare to make child panels more functional and effective while collaborating with the assemblies to enact bye-laws that will protect children and make trafficking and child labour less attractive.
According to the Programme Manager of RAINS, Mr Alhassan Musah “we are firm in our belief that real sustainability of the project should be linked to positive attitudinal change and partnership with the media”.
The manager was briefing project partners and media practitioners on the status of the ongoing initiative, dubbed: “Next generation project” in Tamale.
It is being implemented in the Savelugu/Nanton and West Mamprusi Districts in the Northern Region, with funding from Comic Relief UK and in partnership with Hope for Children, another UK charity organisation.
The initiative aims at addressing the needs of fostered girls in and out of school and seeks among others to prevent the incidence of child trafficking, exploitative labour and poor educational attainment among fostered girls in rural communities.
Mr Musah further explained that the project was adopting a mix of strategies including meeting the school going costs of 1,600 girls in 20 communities in the two districts, enhancing access to heathcare for families and children through the payment of health insurance premiums, vocational training for “kayayee” returnees, micro credit and enterprise development for mothers and aunties.
“One hundred and sixty-six families have been identified for immediate assistance and would be given GH¢100 each to support their small businesses. Ultimately we are targeting 1,500 families for the micro credit intervention,” the manager stated.
A total of GH¢104,856 has so far been expended on the various components of the project.
According to Mr Musah, “RAINS believe that prevention is one of the best strategies in tackling child trafficking, child labour and kayayee”, adding that there was a positive correlation between the number of children who were out of school and those available for trafficking and or labour exploitation.
He said the project had also succeeded in influencing attitudes of parents, foster and biological as well as other community members positively but observed that, real change would be realised when all stakeholders worked in unison and committed themselves to making a change.
“Communities have responded and are showing keen interest in monitoring children and have reported suspected cases of abuse and dropout to the well established Community Surveillance Teams (CSTs) under this project,” the manager stated.
Mr Musah further called for the involvement of children in deciding on matters that affected children.
He urged stakeholders including communities and policy makers to always endeavour to include the views of children when deciding on matters that sought to protect the welfare of children.
In that regard, he said his outfit would help in the establishment of community children’s clubs to offer children the platform to comment and demand action from communities and policy makers on matters to enhance the growth and well-being of children.