International day of the African Child: AONN Calls On All Agencies To Defend The Rights Of Children

The Association of Orphans and Vulnerable Children NGOs in Nigeria (AONN) Oyo State Chapter urges Government agencies, private sectors and major stakeholders to rise up to defend the Rights of Children in the State.

This was made known yesterday 16th June at a press conference in celebration of 2019 International Day of the African Child with the theme “Humanitarian Action in Africa: Children’s Rights First

The State Co-ordinator of AONN Marcus Williams said that “efforts must be put in place by all tiers of government as well as private sectors to ensure issues surrounding the well-being and protection of children are re-evaluated to pave ways for new approaches, children-friendly policies and laws that will bring about better services for children in Oyo State.”

He also noted that Children all around the world are facing a lot of challenges as their rights and privileges are been trampled upon by people who ought to be protecting them.

“Children constitute a significant proportion of populations on the move across international and national borders globally, with a large number of those children moving from and across Africa, Nigeria especially children in South West and Oyo in particular. In Africa, 50% of refugees are children, with about 3 million children forced out of their origins due to various humanitarian crises. Among migrants, nearly 1 in 3 is a child, which is more than twice the global average.”

While emphasizing on the need of the children, Marcus said  access to education and learning helps children cope with the trauma of humanitarian and societal concerns, enabling them to build resilience and provides them with some form of stability.

It added that ‘Good quality education, with its content focused on children’s development, is able to prepare children for preventing and dealing with or responding to humanitarian crises, by equipping them equipping them with practical skills to enhance their protection and survival.’

While advocating for the establishment of a functional family court where perpetrators of violators of physical abuse against the children are brought to Justice, AONN urged the government to develop and implement state and local strategies to prevent humanitarian emergencies, reduce school dropouts eliminate GBV concerns around children and where there exist, steps taken to ensure that the protection of the rights of children is prioritized

Marcus appealed to the Governor of Oyo State Engineer Seyi Makinde to do more in ensuring that laws that protects the rights of children  are enforced and the populace sensitized on existing laws with emphasis on penalties when the rights of children are trampled upon. He further thanked Makinde for prioritizing education in the state.

Children from orphanage homes also called on the Government and private sectors to look into their predicament and come to their aid.
Solomon Collins from Liwon homes called on government to stop every forms of child labour in Oyo State while Oluwaloni Adebayo from Thabita homes called on the private sector to help in donating to orphanage homes so that children can live a comfortable life.

Reported by Abimbola Emmanuel, Ibadan