The CODESULT Network, a Non-governmental Organization (NGO), has trained 20 community observers from 10 communities on mechanisms to eradicate child labour in the various cocoa growing and mining communities in the Bibiani Municipality of the Western North Region.
The training, organized in collaboration with Rainforest Alliance and other partners, and funded by the Norwegian Government through NORAD, sought to ensure companies and government’s commitment to prevent child and forced labour in cocoa and mining communities.
Participants were drawn from government agencies such as Ghana Education Service, Social Welfare, Ghana Health Service, Labour Department, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
The training also brought together representatives from cocoa buying and mining companies as well as traditional authorities among others.
They were taken through advocacy, detection and prevention of child labour.
Mr Robert Obiri Yeboah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CODESULT Network, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the training, described child labour as the participation of children in economic and non-economic activities that were harmful to their health, education and physical development.
“The line is crossed when children perform hazardous work, that is likely to harm their health or limit their education,” he said.
He said the fight against child labour was a shared responsibility and urged the citizenry to support all efforts to eradicate the menace in the various cocoa growing and mining communities.
Meanwhile, Mr Yeboah noted his outfit had been frequently dialoguing with some cocoa buying and mining companies, which he added, had helped communities to benefit from various infrastructural development such as potable drinking water, markets, classroom blocks and other training skills for the youth to address unemployment challenges.
He, therefore, appealed to other cocoa buying and mining companies operating within the Bibiani Municipality to also institute some development initiatives for the people to help reduce unemployment.