Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly Partners Winrock International To Mark Maiden World Day Against Child Labour 

The Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly in collaboration with Winrock International, a Non-Governmental Organization and some local Cocoa Cooperatives has held a colorful community durbar at Hiawu-Besease in commemoration of the 2023 World Day Against Child Laour on Monday, 12th June, 2023.

The mammoth community durbar which was organized by the Municipal Child Protection Committee chaired by the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr. Eric Anaafi brought together various Heads of Departments of the Assembly, Officials of Winrock International and their Cocoa Cooperative partners, Community Child Protection Committee Members form Nerebehi, Ahwiaa, Natabanu and Sawua as well as chiefs and elders, teachers and pupils and community members of Hiawu-Besease.

The global theme for the 2023 edition of the World Day Against Child Labor is ‘Protecting Children Against Child Labor, Now More Than Ever’ with the national theme ‘Intensify Action against Child Labour; Do it Fast, Do it Now’.

The collaborative event, the first time the World Day Against Child Labor was being celebrated in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality, was carried out under the Winrock International’s Making Advances To Eliminate Child Labour in More Areas with Sustainable Integrated Efforts Project (MATE MASIE) being implemented in the Atwima Nwabigya Municipality and four other districts in the Ashanti Region with funding from the United States Department of Labor.

Aside of excellent speeches delivered on the national theme by the implementing partners, there were also poetry recitals, dramas and choreographic displays by pupils basic schools from the five beneficiary communities of the MATE MASIE project to draw the attention of the general public to the dangers of child labour and the need to nib the menace in the bud.

In his opening statement, Mr. Fidelis Yapel, the Winrock Project Director of the MATE MASIE Project, expressed the delight of Winrock International to team up with the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly for the implementation of the MATE MASIE project in the Municipality and also the collaborative commemoration of the 2023 World Day Against Child Labour in the Hiawu-Besease community.

Mr. Yapel explained that the MATE MASIE Project seeks to end child labour, especially in cocoa growing communities across the country. While commending the Assembly and the collaborating actors for the work done so far in eradicating child labour, he admonished them to intensify the efforts in that regard.

 

‘I want to congratulate all the stakeholders involved, including the cocoa cooperatives, municipal/district child protection committees, community child protection committees, traditional authorities, CSOs (civil society organizations), etc., for the various roles you all are playing in the fight against child labor in your communities, districts, the Ashanti Region, and Ghana as a whole. I implore you to take more action and concentrate on eradicating all types of child labor in all sectors in Ghana’, he stated.

Speaking on behalf of the Cocoa Cooperatives, Madam Afua Boadiwaa Aidoo, the Project Officer for Kokoo Pa, called on all stakeholders to come to join forces in the fight against child labour in Ghana.

 

Madam Afua Boadiwaa also drew attention of the nation to the propensity of child labour affecting the trading of Ghana’s cocoa beans on the international market in the near future since the call of the international community for the eradication of child labour in the cocoa sector across the globe keeps intensifying. She therefore stressed on the need to deal with the menace head-on without delay as the Ghanaian theme for the 2023 World Day Against Child Labour depicts.

 

In a speech red on his behalf by the Municipal Coordinating Director, Hon. Michael Amoah Awuku, the Municipal Chief Executive for the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly indicated the commitment of the Assembly towards the elimination of all forms of child protections violations, particularly Child Labour in the Municipality.

 

The MCE enumerated some of the devastating consequences of child labour on children that can last a lifetime. ‘Child labour violates the right of every child to grow up free from exploitation, abuse, and violence. It also compromises children’s education and limits their future opportunities thereby deepening the cycle of poverty in the society’, the statement said.

The MCE also stressed on the need for parents and guardians to ensure their children take advantage of the free compulsory basic education and free Senior High School policy of the NPP government to enable them to compete with their peers in the urban areas. ‘That is why the N.P.P Government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo is making frantic efforts to ensure that all children of school-going age can attend school free up to the Senior High level in the country. It is therefore incumbent on parents to ensure that they do not harm their children’s future by engaging them in activities that would fetch them minute income at the expense of the children’s future coupled with its ripple effect on the country at large,’ he added.

 

The Chief of Besease, Nana Aboagye Asare II, who was the able Chairman of the occasion called for concerted and harmonized efforts of government and civil society organisations towards the elimination of child labour from the Ghanaian society, especially in rural areas where poverty pushes many children into child labour.

He also used the occasion to call on all citizens of Hiawu-Besease to embrace unity and peaceful coexistence towards the development of the town.

 

 

 

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