ILO promotes children’s rights through education, the arts and media training

OBUASI,Ghana (ILO News): As part of the ILO support to tackling the worst forms of child labor, particularly in the artisanal gold mining (ASGM) sector in Ghana, ILO organized a capacity building workshop for stakeholders on Supporting Children’s Rights through Education Art and Media (SCREAM). Teachers, School Clubs and Educational Stakeholders develop gathered for a three day workshop to develop SCREAM action plans and strategies to end child labour in ASGM within Adansi North District and Aowin Municipal in Ghana. The workshop held form from 5-8th of February 2019.

With the goal of supporting child labour Monitoring especially in ASGM, leading local level Advocacy campaigns in schools, engaging duty-bearers on child labour issues in ASGM and promoting referrals for Social Protection Services; a total of forty (40) teachers, education workers Community Child Protection Committee (CCPC) members, Local Assembly officials and other stakeholders participated in the SCREAM methodology training program as a medium to increase discussions on child labour issues in Adansi-North District and Aowin Municipality of Ghana.

The fourteen module SCREAM program provides information and guides on educating children on their rights and child labour through art and media which make practical issues more relatable for the target audience-children. The workshop covered the basic concepts and understanding of child rights and child labor in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM); the SCREAM Child Labor modules, Combating Child Labor in ASGM through Education following which participants engaged group work, presentations and discussions; role play sessions; and designing posters on child labour in ASGM.

The workshop concluded with the development of SCREAM action plans for two districts and four communities as a Strategic way forward to end child labour in ASGM. Participants expressed their gratitude for the training program and pledged to support the elimination of child labour in ASGM using the SCREAM methodology.

SCREAM is being implemented by the ILO CARING Gold Mining project in Ghana through community based organization Social Support Foundation (SSF) to ensure sustainability of the program and impact.


SCREAM: Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media
The SCREAM programme aims to promote awareness among young people about children’s rights, with a focus on child labour, so that they in turn can speak out and mobilise their communities to act. Ultimately, SCREAM seeks to change social attitudes to promote a culture of respect for children’s rights and to strengthen the worldwide movement against child labour.

Three special modules on critical areas have been developed: SCREAM: A special module on HIV, AIDS and child labour; SCREAM: A special module on child labour and armed conflict and SCREAM: A special module on child labour in agriculture .The methodology is based on the arts - drama, creative writing, music and the visual arts – and on the media.