Community Engagement in Combating Child Labor and Child Trafficking

Child labor awareness raising and sensitization are major catalysts for social change within communities.

Community Welfare Committees established by communities are major catalysts in bringing people together and providing common goals for child labor interventions, community development projects, and income generation schemes.

Effective leadership of community members is a powerful tool towards gaining community respect, motivating communities into participating in child labor interventions.

Economic empowerment through training in best practice business skills and effective implementation mobilizes communities towards income generation, self-sufficiency and sustainability, if followed-up and continually encouraged, which may mitigate the likelihood of parents engaging in child trafficking.

Basic functional literacy skills enables community members, particularly youth and women, to converse, write their name, record measurements (i.e. carpentry and tailoring), and document simple requests, for empowerment and change.

Basic functional numeracy skills enables community members, particularly youth and women, to prepare budgets, keep account of income and expenditure, and manage finances, for empowerment and change.

The capacity of communities can be greatly increased through training in child labor, education, healing classroom practices, health, economic development and community development. Multiple trainings that are repeated continuously over the life of the program, in order for messages to be fully absorbed and applied, are preferred to one-off training sessions.

Community to local government initiatives empower communities to engage with their local government and advocate their needs, and pressure them to respond to programs that combat child labor, child trafficking and promote the return of all children to schooling and vocational training.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog