International Day for Street Children 2022 marked in Tamale

The Centre for Development and Policy Advocacy (CEDEPA) has organised a Stakeholder Forum in Tamale on Tuesday, April 12 to mark the 12th International Day for Street Children in Ghana.

The theme for this year's commemoration is "Creating Specialised Solutions to End Child Streetism."

The stakeholder meeting was attended by representatives from civil society organisations, youth and women groups, chiefs, religious clerics, local government officials, including Assembly Members, and officers from the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) as well as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).

The former Northern Regional Director of NCCE, and Guest Speaker for the forum, Alhaji Abdul-Razak Sani, admonished parents to take advantage of government's free TVET policy, by encouraging their wards to attend TVET schools, since it is the surest way for them to gain practical skills, to be able to create their own jobs after school.

The Northern Regional Head of Informal Skills Certification Division of the National Vocational Training Institute(NVTI), Mrs. Abdul-Wahab Humaimah, urged apprentices in the informal sector to register for the NVTI proficiency examinations, to get themselves certified.

She added that the certification would equally enable them access opportunities available to those who learnt the skills in the formal sector.

The forum was also to launch the project, dubbed: "Promoting Child Rights and Equal Opportunities for Street Children and Children in other Vulnerable Situations".

According to the Executive Director of CEDEPA, Mr. Ziblim Alhassan, the project is being implemented in partnership with Safe Child Advocacy(SCA), a non-governmental organisation based in Kumasi, in three communities in northern Ghana, namely, Zangbalun in the Kumbungu District, Gbrimani in the Tolon District and Kotingli in the Tamale Metropolis.

He added that "the Child Rights Protection Committees (CPCs) being inaugurated at today's forum would be empowered to work with CEDEPA and SCA in the respective communities to realise the goal of this project".

Delivering an address on behalf of the Northern Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr. Mohammed Awal Abdul-Malik, a Programmes Officer at the Department, commended CEDEPA and other Civil Society Organisations for the laudable initiatives they are undertaking to complement the efforts of government to deal with the problem of child streetism.

He indicated that protecting the rights of children should be seen as everyone's responsibility. He said the doors of the Department of Social Welfare is always open to all those who are working in the interest of children and other vulnerable groups.

The Executive Director of CEDEPA, Mr. Ziblim Alhassan expressed gratitude to all participants for actively taking part in the deliberations at the forum, and tasked them to carry the ideas and messages to their community members.

He finally thanked Adamfo Ghana for extending financial support to CEDEPA for the activities of the 12th International Day for Street Children 2022.