A number of child-related organisations and institutions operating in the country have responded positively to the declaration of the International Year of the Child by the United Nations and the subsequent passage of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The CRC provides a clear statement prohibiting all forms of violence against children and calls on countries, local authorities, civil society organisations and parents to recognise and strive for the protection of the rights of children. Consequently, some local non-governmental organisations have fashioned out various programmes aimed at promoting the rights of children, as well as enhancing their growth and development.
One institution that has rolled out vital projects aimed at empowering children to enjoy their rights, protection and development is the Afratoun Programme, which has fashioned out a social and financial educational concept embodied in five thematic areas. The programmes are targeted at children from class one to six in selected zones of the world.
The five thematic areas aim at enhancing the understanding of the children, on their rights and responsibilities based on the CRC.
The Women and Development Project (WADEP) of the Catholic Diocese of Jasikan and the Netherlands Development Agency have organised a five-day training programme for participants drawn from selected districts in various regions in Ho to support the implementation of the programme.
The participants were representatives from the Ghana Education Service and non-governmental and civil society organisations.
The Afratoun Programme Officer for the Africa Region, Ms Sawsam Youssef, said planning and budgeting would be encouraged among children to develop their enterprising spirit and use of their creative abilities to develop a learning behaviour.
She said those processes would better prepare the children to move onto the next stage of life after primary education.
The Project Co-ordinator of WADEP, Mrs Patricia Formadi-Aniwa, said the training programme was designed to equip participants to work directly with children and to produce trainers capable of conducting lessons based on designed work books in a child-centred participatory and activity-based approach.
She said the workbook encouraged teachers to teach in a more interactive way different from the traditional rote-learning method, which emphasises memorisation and stifled critical thinking, creativity and self-esteem.
She said those were qualities needed to develop children to become positive-change agents in their communities.
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