PHOTO: NGOs and government representatives
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The National Task Force Against Human Trafficking at the Ministry of Labor and five local NGOs have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at creating awareness on child labor and human trafficking in rural Liberia.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Labor Minister, Cllr. Charles Gibson, admonished the organizations to adequately educate and inform rural dwellers on the dangers of child labor and human trafficking.
He specifically spoke of the need to use traditional means of informing and educating the people in order for the messages to be grasped by target audiences.
Cllr. Gibson wants those designing the sensitization messages to consider the use of “town criers and traditional dramatic groups to inform and educate the through the various vernaculars spoken in given localities.
Min. Charles Gibson
The memorandum of understanding was on behalf of the task force by Labor Minister, Charles Gibson while the executive directors of the five nongovernmental organizations signed on behalf of their respective organizations.
The nongovernmental organizations that signed the memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Labor are the National Parents Teachers Association Network of Liberia, the Children Against Force Labor and the Community Forum of Liberia.
Others are the National Coalition of Civil Society Organizations of Liberia and the Liberia Association of Female Sociologists.
The Labor Minister is meanwhile encouraging collaborating NGOs to take this awareness seriously as the issue of child labor and human trafficking has gone on the increase; thus causing human rights violations.
Speaking on behalf of the organizations was the Executive Director of the Women in Action for Development, Roberta Freeman, who described the memorandum of understanding as the right step in the right direction.
She added that this is the first time that Ministry of Labor has given civil society organizations working on child labor and human trafficking issues a project to implement.
Freeman wants the ministry to extend the project to other parts of the country. She’s at the same time calling on international partners to assist in funding the fight against child labor and human trafficking.
She used the occasion to warn people bent on going to rural settings to take away children with the sole aim of abusing them to stop, saying such practices destroy the kids’ educational development.
Also making remarks at the signing of the MOU was Deputy Labor Minister for Administration Nye-vet Freeman , who recognized efforts by the Labor Ministry to discourage all forms of child abuse in the streets.
According to her, there has been an increase in the number of children selling between cars during school hours. She wants an end to this as it undermines prospects for any good future for the children.
“As for some of the children in cities outside Monrovia, their situation is worse because some are engaged in rubber tapping, farming of all sorts”, the Deputy Minister said.
Also at the signing ceremony were the Director of Child Labor, Patience Herb, members of the National Task Force Against Human Trafficking, and other staffers of the Ministry of Labor