Paul Miller, through the African Kids In Need (AKIN) has supported over 886 vulnerable children in Kenya to access Education up to University levels since 2016. According to records available at ANPPCAN Regional Office, Paul Miller through AKIN, has had a huge impact on many children in Kenya by facilitating and expanding educational opportunities for the children. For many of the children, it would have been impossible for them to access education without the support from AKIN.

ANPPCAN being a child rights organization, firmly believes that while education is a basic right for children, school plays a role in preventing and protecting children from abuse and exploitation. As such, ANPPCAN would like to recognize and appreciate Paul Miller for not only paying school fees for the children, but also in ensuring that their personal needs are met to make the children’s learning process more friendly, as they attend Basic Education, Technical and Vocational Institutes and Universities.

Paul Muchiri, one of the beneficiaries of African Kids in Need pose for a photo with Paul Miller. Mr Muchiri was supported by AKIN to learn at St Francis Primary School in Karen, then joined Sunshine Secondary School along Langata Road, Nairobi. He scored a B+ in KCSE exams. He proceeded to Kenyatta University to pursue a course in Accounting. He has completed his studies and secured a job in an auditing firm as an Accountant

Students supported in Education by African Kids in Need since 2016

•Primary and Pre-primary Education
260 students (126 Males, 134 Females)

•Secondary School Education
470 students (243 Males, 227 Females)

•Vocational/ Tertiary Education
70 students (40 Females, 30 Males)

•University Students
86 students (41 Females, 45 Males)

The total number of students sponsored under the education sponsorship at all levels of education by Paul Miller’s organization’s African Kids in Need is 886 students. This is impressive.
Other support to children to facilitate access to education contributed by Paul Miller to enable the children learn in peace.
• Provision of scholastic materials to vulnerable children in the form of school uniforms, shoes, school bags and books for 886 students.
• Provision of boats in areas experiencing/ prone to floods in Budalangi in Busia County to support children in accessing schools during heavy rains.
• Supporting post – secondary students with Income Generating Activities to improve livelihoods for 80 post – secondary students (45 females and 35 males).
• Mentorship programmes for 400 school going students.
• Goat/ livestock project for 50 vulnerable students to boost investments and incomes at family levels.
• Employment opportunities for 20 post – secondary students and vulnerable Kenyan youths through a mobile local food outlet (Munchies).

Photo 1: Boats donated by AKIN to areas experiencing floods due to heavy rains in Budalangi, next to Lake Victoria, in Busia County in Kenya.

Photo 2: The 2 boats have enabled many children to access school at the time heavy rains pound the area and made mobility to educational and health facilities as well as markets impossible

The entire ANPPCAN family in Kenya sincerely thank you, Mr. Paul Miller for the work you have done over the years that has enabled many children to realize their dream to education.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child is a regional human rights treaty adopted in 1990 and which came into force in 1999. It sets out rights and defines principles for the status of children.

Background Information on how the Charter came to be

The idea to develop an African Charter on the Rights of the Child emanated from a conference organized by ANPPCAN and supported by UNICEF on Children in Situations of Armed Conflict in Africa in 1987.  The participants at the conference learnt of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was being drafted in Geneva.  Considering that few African countries had been involved in the process, the conference recommended that a regional meeting be held to examine the Draft Convention from the African perspective.  Accordingly, ANPPCAN was asked to convene a meeting with the support of UNICEF in 1988 to develop a Charter to supplement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

In the 1988 meeting, it was recommended, among other things, that a working group composed of African specialists in different disciplines, be constituted jointly by the OAU (now African Union) in collaboration with ANPPCAN with the support of UNICEF and other interested organizations to prepare a Draft Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children to be considered by African Governments.

The envisaged objectives of the Charter were to:

• Pay attention to special issues prevailing in Africa.
• Complement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child being drafted at that time, but not to delay its process.
• Facilitate the ratification and the implementation of the UN Convention once adopted.

The African Charter defines a child as anyone below age 18 years and child labour is comprehensively covered in Article 15, while Articles 21 and 22 protects children against harmful social and cultural practices (child marriage, discrimination based on gender) and recruitment into armed conflict.  The Charter further protects children from sexual exploitation in Article 27 where children are supposed not to be in child prostitution.  Article 29 protects children from sale, trafficking and abduction, while Article 16, section 2 expects state parties to establish monitoring units to prevent and protect children from abuse and exploitation.

Under the Charter, nations are obliged to provide protection to children against all forms of abuse, discrimination, neglect and exploitation.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) has been ratified or acceded to by 53 African Union member states.  The Charter expected state parties to constitute a Committee of Experts with clear roles assigned.

Since the African Charter having been adopted 31 years ago and being in force for 22 years, it is time to ask the hard questions. Why despite the noble intentions, has the numbers of children in child labour, continued to increase. A recent report by UNICEF and ILO “Child Labour: Global Estimates 2020, trends and the way forward” indicates that in the last four (4) years 16.6 million children in Sub Sahara Africa, have gotten into child labour.  According to reports from UNICEF, Sub Sahara Africa, has the largest proportion of children, where 29% (5-17 years) are engaged in child labour. This is in stark comparison to the Middle East and North Africa, where 5% of children in this age group, are in child labour. Very many children in Africa continue to be married off young, there by interfering with their education. Teenage pregnancies, is the order of the day and children continue to be trafficked in large numbers for child labour and prostitution. COVID 19 Pandemic has exacerbated the situation as shown by a recent study by ANPPCAN, on the Impact of COVID-19 on Children in 2021 in 4 Counties in Kenya.

Given the special needs of children in Africa, the Experts who developed the Charter, included a Committee of Experts, to ensure the implementation of the Charter.  This Committee was given the role to closely work with Governments in Africa to ensure the situation of children improved.  This Committee was not expected to repeat what the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was already doing. The Committee was given a role to visit countries in Africa and ensure Governments actualize policies, laws and programmes friendly to children e.g. education, food, health and shelter.

However, some 30 years down the line, the situation of children in Africa is still a huge challenge.  Extreme poverty and lack of social protection measures, continue to push many children into situations of exploitation, such as child labour, trafficking and sexual exploitation. Many families can no longer provide for the basic needs of their children and conflicts due to resource scarcity and competition are on increase. Informal settlements continued to expand without planning, leading to overcrowding, exposing children to terrible living conditions and exploitation, as studies show.

The questions then is; what is there to celebrate in the Charter. To begin with, it took nine years for the Charter to come to force and twenty two years after its adoption, children in Africa continue to drop out of school in large numbers, millions of them are in worst forms of child labour; including, prostitution and many cannot access health services and are suffering from malnutrition.

African governments need to question the approaches they have adopted in regard to solving developmental issues. It is time to critically look at applying the global problem solving approaches to national and local issues.

The current reality is, how can the poor countries in Africa, be expected to be measuring their performance with highly developed countries under the SDGs. Africa, needs to start looking inwards and coming up with its own Home Made Solutions, instead of waiting for solutions from others. As long as we continue to depend on others to solve our problems, our children will continue to suffer and all the noble intentions, will be to no avail. If this continues history will judge African countries and their institutions very harshly. Change is urgently needed.

 

 

 

 

05/09/2018

A review of laws, policies and programmes on the elimination of child labour and violence against children in Kenya was launched in a Nairobi hotel yesterday.

The launch of the review report coincided with the launch of ANPPCAN’s programme on Building the Foundation for Child Trafficking Free Zones in Urban and Rural Kenya.

In his remarks read by Mrs Carren Ogoti, head of the Trafficking in Persons Unit at the Department of Children’s Services, Nelson Marwa, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said the review complimented the programme on child trafficking, ‘because a large of children are trafficked for exploitation in labour, including the worst forms of child labour.

The review noted four key issues that need to be addressed as they hinder the full realization of the Government intentions regarding child labour, especially the worst forms and violence against child labour. These key issues  are resource allocation, coordination of key actors and programmes, inconsistencies in laws and lack of data on children.

The review generated recommendations after identifying challenges and gaps in the implementation of the laws, policies and programmes for the elimination of child labour and violence against children in Kenya.

Despite the efforts the Government in enacting laws, develop policies and programmes to eliminate child labour, especially its worst forms and stop violence against children, many children are still engaged in labour activities, and therefore missing on their education and their childhood.

The review concludes by calling for a change regarding the strategies currently being used to address child labour and violence against children in Kenya.

The PS said the findings of the review, including the recommendations, should be shared widely so that they can be used by different actors to improve the situation of children in Kenya.

1. Background

ANPPCAN Regional Office is implementing “Building the Foundation for Child Trafficking Free Zones in Urban and Rural Kenya,” project in Nairobi, Busia, Marsabit and Mandera Counties from April 2016 to December 2018. As a result, ANPPCAN Regional is commissioning a baseline survey to build an evidence base on child trafficking in Busia, Marsabit (specifically in Moyale) and Mandera Counties. This research is one of the main activities of a 33 month Intervention (ending in December 2018) that is being implemented by a consortium of local civil society organizations[1] led by ANPPCAN Regional Office and funded by TdH- NL. The overall objective of the project shall be to prevent and respond to trafficking and unsafe migration of children in Nairobi, Busia, Mandera and Marsabit Counties by December 2018

1. Objectives of the research
   The overall purpose of the research is to build an evidence base on child trafficking in Busia, Marsabit and Mandera, support learning and share best practices in addressing child trafficking.

The specific objectives of the baseline survey shall be:

1. Provide a situation analysis of the status of child trafficking and unsafe migration in Busia, Mandera and Marsabit, including an analysis of emerging trends and new developments;
2. Provide, where possible and available, statistical data and figures on child victims of trafficking and unsafe migration and relevant perpetrators, including quantitative trends;
3. Map current responses to child trafficking and unsafe migration, including legislation, policies, programmes and capacity development initiatives in place to address this challenge;
4. Reflecting on the analysis above, propose a set of policy and programmatic recommendations to improve government (both national and county), non-government and private sector responses to child trafficking and unsafe migration of children in Kenya

In addition, the consultant is expected to undertake trend analysis in the following areas:

1. Up-to-date data on the scale of the problem of child trafficking in Moyale, Mandera and Busia
2. Level of reporting and prosecution of child trafficking cases in these three locations
3. The trafficking routes (source, transit, destination) of the child victims of trafficking
4. The push and pull factors that contribute to this phenomenon
5. The link between economic migration and child trafficking
6. The link between child trafficking and other forms of child abuse (CSEC, Child prostitution, Child labour, etc)
7. The demographic profiles (age, socio-economic background, sex/gender, family composition) of both the child victims of trafficking and the perpetrators
8. The role, if any, modern technology like internet, particularly social media play in escalating/preventing child trafficking
9. To provide empirical evidence of intervention strategies that are effective in preventing and responding to the problem of child trafficking in Busia, Moyale and Mandera and use that to make innovative recommendations for the anti-trafficking programming.
10. To map out other actors/service providers, interventions and strategies being applied to address and respond to trafficking in Busia, Mandera and Moyale and broadly in Kenya and assess the gaps and potential weaknesses, and best practices of the identified interventions/service providers.
11. To analyze the gaps in the child protection systems within Mandera, Moyale and Busia (and beyond) that exacerbate the problem of trafficking and make recommendations for addressing them. This will include (at the very least);
    Analyzing the existing statutory and policy frameworks in child trafficking, identifying gaps and the commensurate policy opportunities for addressing them
    ● Analyzing gaps in the availability, accessibility and adequacy of child protection services and structures in the 3 sites.
    ● Conducting an assessment of the non-formal child protection structures in the 3 sites, identifying their strengths and potential weaknesses in addressing child trafficking.

III. Scope of work – Expected tasks of the Consultancy:
1. Conducting desk review of existing qualitative and quantitative information as per the objectives outlined above
2. Development of data collection tools and sampling methodology. Sharing the tools with ANPPCAN Regional Office for review and feedback. Finalising on the tools and methodology based on the feedback from ANPPCAN Regional Office
3. Conducting a pilot study/pre-test of the data collection tools for accuracy and reviewing appropriately
4. Developing data entry & analysis programme (SPSS for quantitative and any other relevant program for qualitative data) and providing training to the data clerks; and ensuring quality checks during data collection, cleaning, entry and analysis
5. Conducting field data collection exercise
6. Preparing draft report from the findings, with specific recommendations on advocacy opportunities on policy issues as well as best practices in prevention and response intervention strategies against child trafficking for ANPPCAN Regional Office review and feedback
7. Preparing final report from the findings, with specific recommendations on advocacy opportunities on policy issues as well as best practices in prevention and response intervention strategies of child trafficking based on the feedback from Validation Workshop.

1. Guiding Principles and Procedures
   The successful institution/firm or individual consultant will undertake to pay special attention to confidentiality and use of appropriate and sensitive interviewing methods for vulnerable groups (especially child victims of trafficking). The “Do no harm” principle shall be considered and followed in all research processes, in order to mitigate any negative emotional, physical and psychological ramifications that may arise from improper and unethical research practices.V. Deliverables
   Under supervision of ANPPCAN Regional Office Program Coordinator, and in close consultation with the Director of Programs and the Regional Director the selected institution/firm/consultant should deliver the following:
   1.Inception Report
   The inception report should include a literature review on child trafficking in Mandera, Moyale and Busia, and propose a sound and feasible research tools, methodology, for undertaking the baseline survey
   2. Zero Draft Report:
   The Draft Report has to synthesize all findings, conclusions, and recommendations
   3.The Revised Report:
   The Revised Report has to synthesize all findings, conclusions, recommendations (with account of comments and additions from ANPPCAN Regional Office if any that will be shared following submission of the Zero Draft Report)
   4. The Final Report:
   The selected institution/firm/consultant will be expected to produce a final report that will include the outcomes of the validation workshop.VII. Timeframe of the research
   The research will be undertaken from September to November 2016.

VIII. Child Safeguarding
In line with the UNCRC, ANPPCAN Regional Office strives to keep children safe in all its undertakings. The successful applicant will be required to read, understand, and commit to abide by ANPPCAN Regional Office Child Protection Policies and guidelines. The institution/firm or individual Consultant will sign the policies to indicate an understanding of, and intention to follow the policy requirements. The methodologies used in this study must abide by the universally acceptable standards for involving children in research.

1. Experience and Qualifications
   ● Competent institution/firm or individual Consultant conversant with child focused research
   ● Technical knowledge and understanding of child trafficking
   ● Knowledge of the local area of research (geographical) desired
   ● Proven track record in qualitative and quantitative research
   ● Understanding and appreciation of ethical research processes including appreciation of child protection and child safeguarding

HOW TO APPLY:
The consultant will submit a full technical proposal and a financial proposal.
The following components must be included:
i) Technical proposal
a. The consultant’s understanding of the terms of reference
b. Clear and detailed work plan including a Gantt chart
c. A detailed methodology
d. Evidence of past work relevant to this study
e. Names, email addresses and telephone numbers of three references for the consultancy organization/ institution which must relate to major work done within the last three years, and the contact details (names, addresses and email and telephone numbers) of the persons who were ultimately responsible and accountable for contracting the consultants for that work
f. Full names, post office box number, telephone number(s), email addresses, and contact person(s) of the consultant(s)
g. The financial proposal must include the actual number of consultants/team, number of working days and the professional rates per day. It must also include a separate itemised logistic budget with accommodation, transport and stationary, communication, etc, well broken down

The full proposal documents should be submitted to ANPPCAN Regional Office by on Friday, 3o September 2016 through email recruitment.bsn@gmail.com (PLEASE NOTE THE DEADLINE HAS NOW BEEN EXTENDED TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2016).

[1] Strategies for Northern Development (SND), Centre for Domestic Training and Development (CDTD) & Movement Against  Child Trafficking (MACT)