Strengthening Community Capacity to Tackle Child Labour A Step towards a Child LabourFree Society

  • By Admin

Child labour remains a significant issue in many communities around the world. The fight against this social ill requires a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including community members. In this regard, a series of meetings were held in the eight epicentres to build and strengthen the capacity of the Child Labour Community Protection Committee (CCPC) members. The meetings aimed to equip the CCPC members with the necessary skills and knowledge to identify and tackle child labour in their respective communities and neighbouring sub-communities.

Key Learning Areas: During the meetings, the participants were taken through various concepts of Child Labour Free Zones (CLFZs). These included the definition of CLFZs, how a zone could be declared as a Child Labour Free Zone, the basic requirements of Child Labour Free Zones systems, and the roles of CCPC members in tackling child labour issues. The participants were also trained on the technical skills needed for collecting Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System (GCLMS) data.
Other essential learning areas included skills in interviewing children and parents, monitoring and surveillance checkpoints at schools and workplaces, and how to record child labour cases in their provided notebooks.

Core Activities: To successfully carry out their core activities, the CCPC members were informed to raise awareness of child labour and its resulting harms among parents, children, and the broader community. They were also to identify children in child labour through active monitoring processes in schools and workplaces, provide remediation support through community mobilisations, and prevent the children from going back into child labour. The CCPC members were to document the support provided and follow up with the children identified in child labour to monitor their status regularly until they have stopped engaging in child labour activities.

In conclusion, the meetings were a crucial step towards building and strengthening the capacity of the CCPC members to tackle child labour in their respective communities. The training provided the participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to identify and tackle child labour issues. It is hoped that the CCPC members will effectively carry out their core activities, and communities will eventually become Child Labour Free Zones.