World Day Against Child Labour Commemoration on June 12, 2021

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Theme: Act Now: End Child Labour!

Time has come to pay Gratitude to individuals and organizations who have been fighting child labour for many years, but at the same time start challenging each other on why the vices such as child labour still exist. These individuals and groups range from Governments, ILO, UNICEF, International Organizations and Civil Society Groups, especially in those countries that are still developing and have made efforts to fight child labour. Some groups have also included children’s voices to say NO to child labour, which also includes ANPPCAN that was started in 1986 after a conference on child labour in Enugu, Nigeria in 1986.

Many studies have been done by universities and individuals leading to conferences and workshops, with many recommendations made. Both National and International organizations, have condemned child labour and pushed Governments, where child labour exists, to take Action.

Governments have responded, being assisted by all the groups mentioned above and came up with impressive National policies, laws and National Action Programmes to deal with these vices, which also include trafficking of children into sexual exploitation, agriculture and domestic labour. Everyone, including; Governments, after many years of their staff or employees being trained and capacity built by these great groups as described above, still face challenges of resources as a result of which, many impressive documents end up in Government Archives unimplemented.

But as God was observing this, Covid-19 pandemic arrived from Wuhan, China as a joke and before, all those groups realized, the pandemic spread to the rest of the Globe, wreaking havoc. The Corona virus pandemic, truly exposed the world naked, meaning that everyone was not actually operating well. For example, all of a sudden, hospitals have to be built, people have to work from home, they have to be isolated to be alive, etc.

Hence, Comrades in the fight against child labour, why can’t we all use this and subsequent years to review our strategies, as the pandemic has shown that crowds may not solve problems! Countries must be allowed to be the drivers of the issues affecting their populations.  A lot of money and resources have been used, addressing issues globally, which never end, while for example, countries like Kenya, where ANPPCAN operates, ought to be told to wake up and ensure that all children, being produced and raised in Kenya, go through school and obtain education that prevents them from ever entering into child labour or being trafficked.

The Pandemic has confirmed that Poverty has no boundaries.  Countries should look at their populations and address the issues affecting them.  The groups that truly enjoy telling Governments what to do, while some of their staff and implementers enjoy the current approaches, should surrender and revisit the approaches being used.  Resources are being misused in institutions that have not brought an end to poverty and please, let us not comfort ourselves that poverty is relative.  There are countries, which removed child labour from their midst very fast.  All they did was to reduce poverty and removed exaggerated high-end lifestyles.  The Pandemic is telling the World to deal with Poverty effectively.

So, Comrades in child labour, those who want to remove poverty from communities, where poverty is the order of the day, please, join ANPPCAN to deliberate on strategies to go for this year and beyond to remove child labour and other vices affecting children in our midst.

One of the Income Generating Activities in a school in Loitoktok. The proceeds from this activity has been supporting children to stay in school. The children have also replicated this in their homes to help raise money for their families. What a practical idea!.

One of the Income Generating Activities in a school in Loitoktok. The proceeds from this activity has been supporting children to stay in school. The children have also replicated this in their homes to help raise money for their families. What a practical idea!.

Celebrating World Day against Child Labour, June 12

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The World Day against Child Labour will be commemorated on Friday, 12 June 2020. The Day will focus on the impact of Covid 19 on children. The Covid 19 pandemic and the resulting economic, education and social disruptions are having a huge impact on people’s lives. Children are often the first to suffer from such disruptions. Worse still, the crisis is likely to push millions of vulnerable children into child labour.

Some 152 million children between the ages of 5-17 were in child labour with almost half of them – 73 million – in hazardous child labour. This category of children are now at greater risk of facing circumstances that are even more difficult and hazardous to their health than ever before.

Almost half (48%) of the victims of child labour were aged 5-11; 28% were 12-14 years old; and 24% were 15-17 years old. Child labour is concentrated primarily in agriculture (71%) – this includes fishing, forestry, livestock herding and aquaculture – 17% in services; and 12% in the industrial sector including mining.

Over the years, ANPPCAN has implemented programmes to address child labour primarily by preventing child labour, withdrawing children in labour situations and placing them in school and working with Government Departments and development partners in the development of national plans of actions, policies and laws aimed at lessening and eventually stopping child labour.

ANPPCAN and other stakeholders will be celebrating the Day amid the effects of the Coronavirus disease. Since it is going to be a challenge to organize activities the way we always do to celebrate the Day because of the pandemic, we plan to create awareness about the impact of Covid 19 pandemic on children, more so those in the most vulnerable situations, who are likely to be at risk or victims of child labour and child trafficking

To this end, we plan to organize an online campaign during this period of World Day against Child Labour to increase awareness of the child labour. We would be happy if you could join us in the online campaign, by interacting with our posts that will be shared via our Facebook and Twitter starting today until 12 June.

We also have numerous publications on studies we have done on child labour and trafficking posted in our Website and many photos showing the communities where we work in on child labour and child trafficking in Kenya. You are also invited to visit sites of some of ANPPCAN Chapters as some are also concerned about the pandemic and how it is affecting children in vulnerability.

We will appreciate if you can join us in the campaign so that, as many people, as possible are reached and alerted of the changing and increasing dimensions of child labour in this challenging and uncertain times we are in.

We appreciate your continued support.

Thank you,

Bernard Morara
Programme Officer
www.anppcan.org

Programme to accelerate elimination of child trafficking in Kenya

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A new programme by ANPPCAN Regional Office aimed to accelerate elimination of child trafficking in Kenya will be launched in Nairobi, Kenya on 4 September 2018.
The programme titled ‘Building the Foundation for Child Trafficking Free Zones in Urban and Rural Kenya’ is anchored on the learning from a pilot project implemented by ANPPCAN in 2016.
The three year programme will be implemented in Busia, Mandera, Marsabit and Nairobi counties.
To realize results of the programme, ANPPCAN will work with stakeholders from the community to the national level by building their capacity to identify, report, prevent and protect children that are being trafficked or at risk of trafficking.
Implementation of the project will be done through a consortium of three partners namely; Strategies for Northern Development (SND), the Movement against Child Trafficking (MACT) with the leadership of ANPPCAN Regional Office. The project is supported by Terre des Hommes Netherlands.
Even though communities in Busia, Mandera, Marsabit and Nairobi report widespread existence of child trafficking, there are few initiatives that are addressing the issue. Subsequently, thousands of the victims of child trafficking are to be found in various exploitative situations across the country.
The programme targets children, families and communities, the private sector, government, law enforcement agencies, and the civil society organisations with knowledge on child trafficking and the system of response in Kenya.
During the launch, ANPPCAN will introduce the project to stakeholders, including the strategies to be used, activities that will be implemented, the results to be realized from the programme activities and root for collaboration among all the feasible partners in addressing child trafficking in Kenya.
The launch will be attended by over 60 delegates from the civil society organisations, Government departments, international organisations and foreign missions in Kenya.

Skills Training for the Nairobi Child Protection Team

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1 August, 2017 |

ANPPCAN Regional Office will hold a 2-day skills training seminar for the Nairobi Child Protection Team in a Nairobi hotel later this month.
Over 40 participants will participate in the training that is supported by the Gender Violence Recovery Centre of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital.
The training is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the individual members in handling and responding to cases of child abuse and neglect in Nairobi.
The Team is a network of professionals working in child protection and members are drawn from organizations that offer legal, medical, and psychosocial support services to children at risk and/or victims of abuse in Nairobi.
The team was initiated in 2010 by ANPPCAN Regional Office as a model of a functional child protection system in Kenya.
Among other activities, the Team holds quarterly meetings each year to share good practices in child protection, abuse prevention and response, to share experiences in managing difficult cases of child abuse and to strengthen the referral system for child protection in Nairobi.
Some of the topics that will be covered during the 2-day training seminar include case management, referral systems, laws protecting children from abuse and their applications, quality improvement, research and advocacy as well as child led initiatives and monitoring of abuse.

Ncpt meeting feed the children

Meeting of Nairobi child Protection Team in session on 26 July 2017 at Feed the Children, Dagoretti, Nairobi.

National Forum on the Plan of Action against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Kenya

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The National Council for Children’s Services (NCCS) and the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) held a national forum to review the implementation of the Plan of Action against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Kenya (2013-2017). The forum was held on Monday, 18 April 2016 at the Nairobi Safari Club and attracted sixty (60) participants from Government department, civil society organization and the private sector who are directly involved or implemented activities on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The Government of Kenya developed a National Plan of Action against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Kenya in 2013. The plan provides a road map of some of activities to be implemented by the Government of Kenya and stakeholders in addressing sexual abuse and violence against children in the country. The Plan of Action has been developed around the key areas of prevention, protection, recovery and reintegration, coordination and cooperation, child participation as well as monitoring and evaluation. In itself, the plan is a well thought out document to facilitate stakeholders in harnessing energies and resources in responding to sexual violence against children in the country.

The aim of the national forum is to initiate discussions on the extent of implementation of the current plan of action, and this will culminate in building of consensus on the follow up plan of action when the current one expires in 2017.

This activity is being implemented with the kind support of ECPAT France.