The International Justice Mission (IJM) Ghana, dedicated to the welfare of children and the vulnerable in society, has asked district, municipal and regional officers of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in the Eastern Region to prioritise the well-being and welfare of children.
It also encouraged the officers to organise an education campaign to educate community members in their respective jurisdictions on the negative effects of child trafficking and child labour.
The Lead Social Worker of IJM, Vida Mamle Selorm Hodinyah, who made the call at a four-day training seminar held at Koforidua, the regional capital, last Monday (April 27), said the mission considered child trafficking and child labour issues very paramount.
Seminar
The training seminar, which was organised by the IJM for officers of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in the region, focused on strengthening the capacity of the officers to effectively respond to cases of human trafficking, as well as child labour issues.
Some of the topics participants were taken through included DSW Probation Manual Case Management, Laws on Human Trafficking and Trauma Informed Care, the Children’s Act, 1998 and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003, Act 653, L.I. 2219, among others.
The primary objective of such engagement was to enhance frontline response, protection and case handling for victims of human trafficking.
The seminar brought together regional, municipal and district officers of the Department of Social Welfare in the region to discuss issues on institutional collaboration, promoting awareness creation on child trafficking and child labour and ways of finding lasting solutions to the issues.
Education campaign
Mrs Hodinyah urged participants to educate the communities on the Human Trafficking Act and to encourage them to report cases of human and child trafficking.
“Encourage the community members to come and report issues of child trafficking and child labour to social welfare workers to help deal with such issues effectively,” she stated.
Mrs Hodinyah said the welfare of women and men who are vulnerable in society and particularly children, must be handled with intentionality, considering they were the future leaders of the country.
“As an organisation, our main objective is to strengthen the justice system and build the capacity of social welfare workers to better respond to the issues appropriately.
As we work with our partners and identify gaps, it is part of our mandate to collaborate effectively with the government to enhance their knowledge to better respond to issues of child trafficking and child labour,” Mrs Hodinyah stated.
Mrs Hodinyah indicated that the IJM was committed to working with its partners to ensure children’s protection against all forms of violence that hindered their growth and development.
She reflected on the impactful roles the IJM had played towards the reduction of trafficking cases in the districts, municipalities and the regions as a whole.
The Justice Systems Associate of the IJM, Nana Efua Amanfu, for her part, said after the four-day training and the subsequent knowledge gained, particularly on child trafficking and child labour, the organisation expected the social workers to sensitise community members on such issues and to effectively work with the Ghana Police Service and the Judiciary, saying a multi disciplinary approach was very important to collectively fight against human trafficking.
Mrs Amanfu urged the DSW officers to give survivors of trafficking emotional support while they work to gather vital information to prosecute offenders of child trafficking.
Unknown persons
She advised parents and guardians to first investigate persons to know their backgrounds before handing over their children or wards to them, as ignorance of a crime is not an excuse in law.
Two of the participants, the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Isaac Koramoah Asante, and a social worker from the Akuapem North Municipality, Rosemary Amoako-Gyasi, told the Daily Graphic that the knowledge gained would positively impact work in their various jurisdictions.
Writer’s email: haruna.wunpini@graphic.
com.gh
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh