Home
Save the Children International, Terre des Hommes, Plan International, Childfund International, Save Our Souls (SOS) International and World Vision International came together to form the Joining Forces Alliance which is a collaborative alliance that focuses on protecting children from harmful practices.
On Thursday the 23rd they organized a roundtable that invited all stakeholders which now includes the children themselves. Their unique approach is designed to give the children and the youth a listening ear so that they can participate in policy-making.
During the roundtable, they invited various students from different secondary schools and gave them an opportunity to ask questions. To further cement the collaborative, all-inclusive effort, all the regional directors of these organizations including Mona Aiko Child protection specialist UNICEF and Mary Thiong’o Assistant Director Department of Children Services, National Council for Children’s Services were present.
The High school students were given an opportunity to say what challenges they experience and the kind of interventions they’d like to see going forward. Joining Forces Alliance laid down the work that they do and committed to being held accountable.
“We are very intentional on preventing child labour by bringing the children back to their families. We define child separation as a child who has left the care of their home to go and fend for themselves. This prevents them from getting the education they deserve and exposes them to danger. Therefore we want to reunite these children with their families,” said Bedilu Shegen the Deputy Regional Director, SOS Children’s Villages.
On her part, the government representative updated the crowd about child welfare programs that are designed to protect the child from harmful practices and keep them in school. “We have child officers all over the country who are deployed by government to ensure that children are protected and their welfare is secured. Additionally, the government has established child welfare programs such as school meals and cash transfers. The families of these vulnerable children are given cash to sustain them so that they don’t send these children to work.
When it comes to schools, we’ve also ensured that public schools have food. We acknowledge that the school meal might be the only meal that a child has. To keep them in school and to keep them fed, we have meals for them in school,” shared Thiong’o
Thiong’o said that the government is working on collecting data and collating it to one database so that they can give targeted help. This information will also be shared with non-state actors so that they can partner with us in protecting children.
Strong referral systems
The beauty of working in an alliance such as Joining Forces Alliance is that it widens the reach of all organizations as a collective force. For example, there are organizations that don’t have a reach in the urban slums but do well in remote hard-to-reach areas. They, therefore, refer these marginalized groups in urban slums to organizations that serve those areas.
“We urge our joining forces alliances to form strong referral networks and frameworks so that we can reach every area and cater to the underserved populations,” said Kijala Shako, Director of Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications and Media, East and Southern Africa, Save the Children International.
On his part Roger Yates the Executive Director, Plan International region of Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa lauded Kenya for the elimination of FGM and encouraged cross-border collaboration so that other African countries can take after Kenya.
“Kenya is one of the leading countries that have eliminated FGM. It’s remarkable because citizens of other countries would cross into Kenya and bring their girls to face the cut,” noted Yates.
