CAS organises human rights education workshop for street children

The Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) has held a four-day workshop on human and children’s rights for street children.

The workshop which is part of a Street Project dubbed “CAS on the Move” was aimed at empowering street children on Human and Children’s Rights, Communication and facilitation skills to enable them have an influence on their peers who find themselves on the street.

The programme was put together in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare, the District Assembly, traditional leaders and other non-governmental organizations working with the target group.

The CAS Peer-to-Peer education took place in three of the Department of Social Welfare Districts namely; Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, Accra Metropolitan Authority and Ada West.

The first phase of the training workshop took place at Sege in the Ada West District Assembly on 14th& 15th August, while the second phase of the training took place on the 16th& 17th August, at the CAS Drop-in-Center at Laterbiokorshie, Accra.

The programme incorporated “On Street” and “Out of School” children drawn from various CAS operational areas with 45 individuals including young mothers benefitting from various topics such as session on declaration of human rights, play based games on child rights, sessions on convention on the rights of the child, articles on children’s rights and communication and facilitation skills using play based approach.

Children and ‘Out-of-School’ youth also benefitted from group discussions and roles play which built their confidence and prepared them for the education.

The trainer, Mr. Samuel Boamah, a Social Worker and street worker with over 20years experience led the various workshops at Sege and Accra.

The Project Coordinator, Mr. Paul Avevor said he is of a believe that the vulnerable children have what it takes to bring the change needed in their lives hence, he believes the workshop will empower ‘Out-of-school children & youth children on Rights, Communication, and interactive skills to help them use the empowerment to engage our authority in situations pertaining to their lives and other needs as well as their survival.

For his part, Mr. Edward Agbeshie, the Field Project Coordinator emphasized the need for the workshop to help the participants in Peer-To-Peer education in the Sege community where beneficiaries get the opportunity to become agents of change to their colleagues in their own community.



Present at the training was the District Chief Executive of Ada West District Assembly, Mr. A. L. Akrofi supported by the District Coordinating director, Alhaji Al-hassanZiblimAlhassan and Head of Department of Social Welfare & Community Development, Mr. Divine Exorgbe.

In his remarks, the Ada West DCE, Mr. A. L. Akrofi disabused the minds of the participants about various perceptions held on child trafficking especially about such workshops and pledged his support for the project. He spoke about a recent child trafficking incident in the community and admonished the youth to guide against such practices and defend themselves by using the education on Rights to expose the perpetrators of such acts.

He urged the youth to always embrace opportunities to learn new things that will bring significant change to their current situation.

As a follow-up, ‘Out-of-school’ children and youth will move to their communities in the coming months to educate their peers and will be supervised by CAS fieldworkers.

According to the schedule, each beneficiary trainee is expected to form a group of 5-10 children or youth who constantly attends the education lessons.

At the end of the training, street children educators received certificates of participation as a motivation to steer them on for the task ahead.