ATCWAR and WCP organize capacity building training for girls

Advocacy and Trainers for Children and Women Advancement Rights (ATCWAR) in collaboration with World Children Prize (WCP) on Tuesday organized a four-day capacity building training for 120 girls from some selected schools in Accra.

The training which is aimed at promoting girls to be children ambassadors brought together students from the Central, Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra Regions.

The training was also to raise awareness and support children, especially girls who want to fight for their rights and against the child sex trade.

Ms Ekua Ansah-Eshon, Country Director of WCP, said the event was also to provide the children and schools with a unique, fun and exciting way to learn about their rights, the lives of children all over the world and about child rights heroes who fought for the world’s vulnerable children.

She said the girls will receive basic training on the rights of the child, girl’s rights, the child sex trade (commercial sexual exploitation of children), the WCP education program and how to start and run WCP Child Rights Clubs.

Ms Ansah-Eshon said it was important that schools and churches in the country establish child rights clubs to inform and educate children on how to fight for their rights and also to protect other people’s rights.

She said child abuse was a very big offence which needed continuous education on how to treat children at schools, churches, in our homes and in our everyday life in our societies and communities and also fight against the child sex trade.

Mr Kofi Kumah, National Coordinator of Ghana NGO’s Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC), said the knowledge of children needs to be deepened on the country’s laws, especially laws that fight for children’s rights.

The called on parents and guardians to educate them on prostitution, sexual harassment, divorce, child trafficking, and corporal punishment in schools, early and force marriage and to also encourage guidance and counseling.

Mr Barima Kwasi Amankwaah, Programmes Officer of GNCRC and Chairman of the occasion, appealed to organizers of the program to continue to do more and expand the programme to the other parts of the country.