Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANCPPAN)

Country: Kenya

Project Title: "Social mobilization against trafficking of children into domestic work and commercial sex"

Project Timeframe: 12 months

Location of Project: Nairobi, Mombasa, Malindi

Budget Amount: $103,375

NGO contact and website:
P. O. Box 1768-00200
City Square, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: 254-020-573990
E-mail: regional@anppcan.org

Project's Primary Objective: Strengthen formal and transitional education systems that encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend school.

Description of Organization: ANPPCAN is a Pan African Child Rights NGO registered in Kenya, with headquarters in Nairobi. It was founded in Enugu, Nigeria in 1986 during the First Conference on Child Abuse in Africa, whose theme was "Combating Child Labour in Africa."

ANPPCAN was one of the few NGOs which joined with the government to implement Kenya's Country Programme to Eliminate Child Labour funded through ILO/IPEC in 1992. From its inception, ANPPCAN appreciated development challenges related to child labour and directed its efforts to addressing the root causes that make children abandon learning or school and enter into labour market prematurely.

ANPPCAN has been implementing ILO/IPEC action programmes on child labour since 1992. It has also participated in the National Steering Committee on Child Labour in Kenya. ANPPCAN started with child labour activities in four districts, and now covers 15 districts. Through its programme on child rights and child protection, ANPPCAN has created child protection teams in 30 districts in Kenya. These teams improve services for children in these districts. All these efforts have elicited positive rating from other partners. The child labour programme has so far registered tremendous success in meeting its objectives in Kenya. The teams and committees have improved coordination among different actors both at community and district levels, thus, reducing duplication of activities at field level while enhancing community ownership and inter-sectoral approach at community district levels.

Description of Project funded by CIRCLE: Child labor is rampant in Africa, Kenya included. In Kenya some some 1.3 million are in child labour, where children are forced to leave schooling for employment under what is considered hazardous to their normal growth and development. Many factors have been identified to make children end up in employment situations that are injurious not only to their physical health, but also to their mental and social well being. Top on the list is poverty, which drives many children out of school because the economically challenged families cannot afford school levies. This situation has been made worse by AIDS pandemic that has rendered so many children parentless. These factors combined make some 2.2 million children in Kenya to be out of school system.

Many Kenyan girls are trafficked into domestic labour and commercial sex or prostitution. Some 17.5 percent of Kenya's working children are in domestic child labour while some 10,000-30,000 children are in commercial sex. Meanwhile the school environment, with sexual harassment, severe discipline, poor sanitation, and overcrowding, is driving many girls out of school. Lack of policies or failure to implement the few available makes it difficult for children coming from economically challenged families and those without parents to have access to quality education.

ANPPCAN's CIRCLE project seeks to address these issues while focusing on children who get trafficked into domestic child labour and into commercial sex or prostitution. The target districts are Nairobi, Mombasa and Malindi, because of the magnitude of the problem in these areas. The main objective of the project is to combat trafficking of children into domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation through promotion of education and vocational training in Kenya.

The strategies to be used include:
  • Formation and strengthening of inter-sectoral linkages between various government departments and civil society organizations at impact levels.
  • Raising awareness while advocating for affirmative actions both at local and national level.
  • Preventing children getting into domestic child labour and prostitution (worst forms of child labour) and withdrawing those already working in the sectors and returning them back to school and for skills training.
  • Providing direct support to children at risk and those withdrawn from domestic work and prostitution.
The project will create child labour committees at district, divisional, and at school levels. This will build capacities of communities to effectively address the trafficking of children, especially girls into the two sectors. The project will also create community based child labour monitoring systems, which will include reporting desks, where the withdrawn children can receive counselling

The project will support 450 pupils at risk of dropping out of primary school to join child labour in domestic work and prostitution to remain in school and also support 200 children aged between 15 and 17 years who are out of school to join vocational training for skills development while some 150 children between 5 – 15 years will be withdrawn and returned to school. ANPPCAN will work closely with the two key Ministries of Education and Labour both at national and district level

Above all, the project will assist the government to implement child labour policies and enforce laws while responding to root causes, including environmental conditions in schools and vocational training.

Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 350 children engaged CDW/Com sex
Persistence: 100%
Transition: No transition to other non-CIRCLE funded programs
Completion: 100%