Who are you trying to help? What issue are you trying to address?

We are the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), Liberia. We advocate for the rights, welfare and development of the children and women in Liberia and are trying to make a positive difference through our actions.

Programmes aimed at fighting child labour in Liberia are lacking and the few that exist target the aftermath and not prevention. Both the legal and policy framework to prevent child labour are very weak in Liberia. Although a Labour Law exists to prohibit child labour, it has never been enforced. No child labour policy exists, and the compulsory education policy (which has great potential in preventing child labour) is not operational. Child labour is therefore accepted as a necessary evil. However, other factors such as ignorance by parents and the low value of education among some parents are major contributing factors to child labour.

Very limited community based initiatives have been made by the community towards increasing the access to school for their children, with most of the members expecting the Government and NGOs to provide the educational services free of charge. The goal is to see every child and family having their rights to survival and education, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

What is your project and how will it help?

We have begun a project called Child Education and Family Support project. Our method is that we visit identified communities and schools to donate recreation, survival, educational materials and clothes to children and families.This programme, if supported, will help the children to attend school help be alleviated from one stage of poverty, breaking through the vicious cycle. They will be able to work and send their children to school. There would be no involvement in child labour for survival.

It can be concluded that working in the selected sectors and targeted counties will be critical in responding to the problems faced by children as analyzed above. The demand for child labour is so high in the sectors that it will not go away overnight. Children who would otherwise be in school continue to work in rubber plantations, domestic labour, commercial sex and they are exposed to hazardous and exploitative conditions.

In order for us to start this project, your partnership, support and donations of the below items are needed:

Clothes and Toys
Food items,
Shoes
School books and back bags

If you are interested we will keep you informed with regular updates on the progress of our project.

How can other people partner with you on your project?

It would be appreciated if interested partners could ship in their donated items to Liberia and also, assist ANPPCAN with little administrative and logistics costs. This would be to help facilitate the process of implementation and distribution. We will be very grateful if the partner could also join us in the distribution process. This will enable the partner to have a local feel on the ground and meet with the targeted beneficiaries as well as some stakeholders in Liberia.

Please detail the resources that you need.

RESOURCES NEEDED ARE:

Thank you for your time and for considering this request we look forward to working with you and creating stronger communities in Liberia.