Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: African Center for Human Development (ACHD)

Country: Ghana

Project Title: "Community Solidarity in Reintegrating Child Laborers to School"

Project Timeframe: 24 months

Location of Project: Kadjebi District

Budget Amount: $60,000.00

NGO contact and website:
Wilbert TENGEY
PO. BOX OS 273 OSU
Accra – Ghana
Office: (233) 21 223031
Email: achd@africaonline.com.gh

Project's Primary Objective:
Objective # 1 – Public Awareness

Description of Organization:
The African Centre for Human Development (ACHD) works to advocate for the Rights of the Child. In the Kadjebi District, the organization has been present for the past 12 years through project interventions and has worked directly at the grassroots level with those vulnerable to child labor.

Some of the activities ACHD has carried out are:
  • Managing 3 "Homes" for trafficked children sold into child labor that have been rescued by ACHD. The project is being sponsored by DANIDA;.
  • Prepared a country a study and report on " Combating Trafficking in Children for Labor Exploitation in West and Central Africa." The study was done for the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and commissioned by the ILO/IPEC; and
  • Conducted a field study jointly with Creative Associates Inc., U.S.A, on abusive child labor in Ghana.

Description of Project funded by CIRCLE:
Community Solidarity in Recall of Child Laborers to School is designed to fulfill one of the four CIRCLE objectives. It will raise awareness of the hazards of child labor, and stress the importance of basic education for all children, especially the girl-child. After awareness creation, there will be an effort to tackle the root-causes of why some children are not in school. A collective effort will be made to enroll them in school; and keep them there.

Intensive education and meetings will be conducted with the Technical Appraisal Monitoring and Evaluation Committee to officials of the need for all children to attend school. The impediments of why children are not in school will also be addressed.

Village level durbars, meetings, focus group discussions, and association meetings will be held for all categories of persons and groups identified within the community to bring all relevant actors into the process and to convince each sector on the importance of this effort. Many workshops will be conducted to strengthen or facilitate the training of Parents-Teacher Associations in the community as the focal point of supervising the management of the schools and education system in the area.

The project will in addition provide In-Service Training on modern techniques of teaching for educators.

Finally, Child Sentinel Committees will be formed in the schools. These will be children leaders chosen by the children themselves from each class (one boy, one girl) to work together as Peer Monitors.

Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 90% of school-aged children in the area to receive basic education
Persistence: 100% of those 90% will stay in school to complete basic education
Completion: 100% of participants will complete the program