Education on child trafficking in Yendi Municipality intensifies
The Assemblies of God Relief and Development Service (AGREDS) in partnership with Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) have organized a two-day training workshop for 50 Parents Committee (PC) members and children in their operational communities in the Yendi Municipality of Northern Region.
Some of the topics discussed at the session include child development rights, role of children against education, child trafficking, child abuse among others.
In his closing address, the Programme Coordinator of Yendi Area Child Development Programe, Mr George Maalug Kombian indicated that the rationale behind the training workshop was to build the capacity of Parent Committee members to enable them to fight the menace of child abuse related cases in their communities.
He stated that through internal trafficking, children were taken from deprived rural areas especially the Northern Sector of this country to the urban cities for use as domestic servants Hawkers, commercial sex workers and truck pushers.
Mr Kombian indicated that this was why the Assemblies of God Relief and Development Service Programme in partnership with Christian Children’s Fund of Canada had intensified the education of parent Committees and Child Protection Teams in the area to ensure that those negative practices were prevented in the area.
He said the focus of their educational support programme was on basic education which covered early childhood education, Primary and Junior High School levels and Vocational Education for young girls and boys who had dropped out of school.
According to the Programme Coordinator both boys and girls were also sponsored in acquiring skills in tailoring and hair dressing.
The Yendi Municipal Community Development Director Mr. Bukari Abdul-Samadu said 148 Child Protection Teams had been established in 148 communities in the Yendi Municipality which include Zang, Choo, Kpasanado, Malzeri and Sunson to educate parents to protect children’s rights and provide their needs.
Mr Abdul-Samadu stated that every child had the right to education and that parents should ensure that all children of school-going age should be sent to school. He also urged parents to report all teenage pregnancy cases to the police for the law to take its course.
He observed that breaking the cycle of poverty through the holistic development of children in poor and deprived communities was a matter of top priority to the Yendi Municipal Assembly and its development partners.
Mr. Abdul-Samadu warned parents not to withdraw their daughters in schools for marriages or encourage them to go to the urban areas to engage in “Kayayo” or head porter business.
Source: GNA