Anambra Govt Partners With NAPTIP: The recent trend where parents send their under-aged children away as maids has been described as a worrisome development, that portends grave danger for the future of the society.
The wife of Anambra State governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo gave the concerns on Wednesday, when she flagged off a Capacity Building for NGOs in Anambra, Akwaibom and Cross Rivers States to combat emerging issues in trafficking in persons, held in Awka, Anambra State.
The event is organized by NAPTIP in collaboration with Anambra State Government and other partner states.
In recent times, cases of child molestation, abuse and assault have been rife in the state, requiring urgent intervention of the government.
The latest was that of a 9-year-old, who was gruesomely assaulted by her mistress at Nkpor, presently in hospital under the state government’s care.
Speaking at the event, Mrs Soludo lamented the negative impact severing the children from their parents early in their life would have on their development.
According to her, the training is very important and the state government will take up proceedings from the event and ensure that the necessary support is provided to the fight against human trafficking.
“The one that bothers me most is the situation where parents send 5-year-old, 6, 7-year-old to go as a house help to someone’s house. It is quite worrisome.
“At 7-year-old, the child is still supposed to be under the care and tutelage of their parents, learning how to bath, morals, and other virtues they require to live a successful life.
“But they send them out to take of someone else’s family. A wicked mistress will wake her up by 4am to cook, wash and do all sorts of things for her children who are even older than her. At some point, the child will not be normal again because she did not receive the care she is supposed to receive,” she regretted.
Mrs Soludo urged the participants to take the training serious and ensure that the lessons learned are deployed in the discharge of their duties,” she said.
On her part, the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon Ify Obinabo noted that with the support of the governor’s wife, her Ministry has intensified the war against the anomaly, and will continue the efforts.
“When we came in and saw what was happening with the spike in cases of human trafficking, we sought for ways to address it and that was why we engaged the NAPTIP to see how they can assist us train our personnel.
“We thank God that today it is a really and we are looking forward to these our officials being empowered with the right knowledge and expertise to handle these human trafficking issues,” she said.
Earlier, the Director-General, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Prof Fatima Waziri, whon spoke through Arinze Orakwue, the Director, Training and Manpower Development, NAPTIP, said the training followed calls by the State Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, to build the capacity of its officials to effectively handle issues of human trafficking.
“We want to commend the Anambra Women and Social Welfare Commissioner for reporting most of these cases, with the intent to find solution. This is a positive attitude that will help the fight against human trafficking instead of hiding the figures and pretending that all is well,” she said.
She also said the states were chosen because of the position they occupy in the hierarchy of states with the highest incidence of human trafficking, illegal adoption and other vices against humans.
The NAPTIP boss said the NAPTIP is doing a lot in supporting the states to ensure prosecution of offenders of human trafficking law.
She however noted that a major challenge to the effective prosecution of offenders is the unwillingness of family members to report issues for fear of the ridicule that will come with reporting such cases.
She pledged that; “The NAPTIP will support the state to handle the issues. We want to partner the office of the wife of the governor and will also work with church groups, women groups in churches to reduce the incidence of human trafficking.”
One of the facilitators for the event, Nkiru Maduechesi, who works as a Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF, Abuja office, said they are at the programme as stakeholders, to support in strengthening the capacity of the social workers and the operators of alternative care centres on the statutory standards for provision of alternative care for children.
According to her, these children include those in the institutions and those in the adoption registers as well as those who are vulnerable and needs alternative care in the state.
“The reason for the meeting is to improve protective environment for children because of the evolving incidence of illegal adoption and sale children. It is concerning for stakeholders like the UNICEF and we are here to strengthen the capacities of the stakeholders to understand the standards in the Child Rights Law, which they have passed and also to discuss the challenges and what should be done to curb the menace,” she said.
She also said the event is to have a consensus building as to the strategic actions that will be taken going forward, in order to prevent such incidents from happening.
In her words; “we want to see if there are child protection systems that are well funded by government in terms of empowering the social workers to support families in preventing and responding to issues of violence against children, including this issue of domestic violence and misuse of children as domestic workers.”
She continued; “We also want to understand the players and what they are doing in the area of adoption of children. Adoption is statutory and you don’t adopt a child without recourse to the judiciary.
“It is when we understand these players and what obtains in their localities that we can help strengthen their systems or even set up working systems where they do not exist hitherto.”
