By Mabinty Kamara
Save the children International will today launch an ‘every last child’ campaign at the Miatta Conference Hall.
The campaign, which will target both boys and girls with special preference to child mothers, was designed to help advocate for every Sierra Leonean child to have access to quality education, protection of their fundamental human rights and proper health care without marginalization. It will also specifically targets vulnerable children like children of beggars, child traders, and child mothers.
This, according to the charity, will help bridge the gap of exclusion, marginalization and vulnerability of children in the development of the country.
Jounna Tom-Kargbo, advocacy and campaign manager of Save the Children, said that the campaign will be a continuation of some of the things which they did not complete in their last campaign which was titled ‘everyone campaign, which started in 2011 and ended in December 2015.
“As we were advocating for the inclusion of everyone in the country into the system by creating awareness on things like the Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals and also raise awareness on the fundamental human rights of the citizens which many sierra Leoneans did not know before now, we also brought to the knowledge of policy makers the importance of inclusion of the citizens in to national development,” she said, adding: “we also educate them on the numerous international treaties our government has signed.”
“The campaign was an eye opener to all as we influenced a lot of policies including health issues,” she said, adding that though they couldn’t reach everybody in the country, they tried to reach many.
William Sao Lamin, a civil society activist, said that accountability was also key to the campaign, noting that the ministry of education, for instance, should be able to produce an accurate number of school going girls below the age of 18, and bring to the knowledge of the people the international treaties and commitment the leaders sign on behalf of the people and also if they were working in accordance with some of those treaties. “They signed them on our behalf but are they implementing them?” he asked.
Mr. Lamin said that women’s empowerment started with the girls and that as such they needed to be empowered now if they were to contribute to national development in the future. He called on Sierra Leoneans to ensure supporting the last vulnerable child in the last village of Sierra Leone.
“We fought against Ebola and the eleven years civil war and we succeeded. So if we are set again to address the problem of our children we can do it by putting a stop to child marriage, child trading, child labor, etc, and empower them through education,” he said. He added that children had been denied and neglected in the development agenda of the country.
Save the Children is the world's leading independent organisation focusing on supporting the development of children. They work in around 120 countries, dedicated on saving children's lives; fighting for their rights and helping them fulfill their potentials.
Save the children work to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Across all of their work, they pursue several core values: accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity.
(C) Politico 26/04/16
