September 2005. CIRCLE Partner Environment Protection Association of Ghana (EPAG) is implementing a 6-month project under CIRCLE to contribute to the elimination of child labor in agriculture farms in the Amansie West District of Ghana. EPAG is achieving this through sensitization, training of Child Labor Committees, withdrawing 30 children from agricultural work and enrolling them in formal schools.

EPAG has built strong partnerships with major stakeholders and the district assembly to design and implement child welfare policies that ensure the health, growth, and development of children in an enabling social environment. This was made possible through community mobilization, the creation of child labor committees, and the active involvement of appropriate local authorities such as Chiefs/Queen mothers, the District Assembly, Unit Committee, Religious Bodies and Opinion Leaders.

A strong asset of the EPAG is their sensitization methodology. Posters, T-Shirts and community meetings are part of a package used to convince the community to enroll children in school instead of engaging them in labor. Many of these awareness raising activities took the form of public announcements in the communities, open forums and durbars (public events).

After the effective sensitization, many people showed interest in becoming part of the community child labor committee (CCLC), and help identify and monitor children in need. As a result, a one and half day workshop was created. The 25 CCLE members were brought together to train and be informed on what causes children to work, strategies for the elimination of child labour, and myths and facts about child labor. The community child labour committee (CCLC) is a new approach and has been very useful and effective as it shows community ownership of the project. CCLCs are composed of representative of all the institutions and structures in the communities that helps EPAG defend the idea that child labour is a community issue. This collaboration has made EPAG gain credibility in the areas that they work.

Funding provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreements E-9-K-2-0048 and E-9-K-4-0005.
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