GAFNA Validates Child Protection Assessment Report
GAFNA Validates Child Protection Assessment Report
Daily Observer, 06 Jan 2016
URL: http://observer.gm/gafna-validates-child-protection-assessment-report/
The Gambia Food and Nutrition Association (GAFNA) has recently organised a one day validation workshop for stakeholders on the Draft Child Protection Assessment Report of urban refugees, held in its conference room in Kanifing.
GAFNA is a Non-Governmental Organisation that has been partnering with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for more than a decade now. Since then it has been implementing projects geared towards promoting the welfare of refugees residing in some of the districts in Foni, West Coast Region and the Greater Banjul Area. According to its officials, the urban based refugee population consists of mainly Ivoirians, Togolese and Sierra Leoneans and Liberians. Officials indicated that out of the above mentioned urban refugees there are 595 children (276 girls and 319 boys) of different age categories.
The Executive Director of GAFNA, Yusufa J. Gomez, said the rationale behind conducting a child protection assessment for urban refugee children is based on the fact that the adult and adolescent urban refugees are faced with livelihood challenges that may be caused by high unemployment rate. As a result, Gomez noted, it is important to know how these challenges affect their children in relation to their wellbeing such as access to education, shelter, food and child labour.
The GAFNA boss indicated that another objective of the assessment was to identify the types of child abuses that are common among urban refugee children and causative factors or reasons for these abuses.
The findings of this process, he went on, will guide GAFNA and other development partners to design responsive and child centered programmes geared towards ameliorating some of the challenges faced by refugee children living in the urban areas.
Gomez went on to thank the UNHCR Office for their unflinching support in promoting the welfare of refugees in the country.
On his part, Falu Sowe, the lead consultant and the national coordinator of the Network Against Gender Based Violence, said the assessment report has revealed that the urban refugees are really facing so many challenges, which among them, are physical abuses, sexual abuses and abuses in the community including schools.
Sowe observed that the report will go a long way in supporting GAFNA and its partners like Child Protection Alliance (CPA) and the Department of Social Welfare among others in mapping out challenges faced by refugee children in the urban areas.
by Alhagie Babou Jallow
GAFNA is a Non-Governmental Organisation that has been partnering with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for more than a decade now. Since then it has been implementing projects geared towards promoting the welfare of refugees residing in some of the districts in Foni, West Coast Region and the Greater Banjul Area. According to its officials, the urban based refugee population consists of mainly Ivoirians, Togolese and Sierra Leoneans and Liberians. Officials indicated that out of the above mentioned urban refugees there are 595 children (276 girls and 319 boys) of different age categories.
The Executive Director of GAFNA, Yusufa J. Gomez, said the rationale behind conducting a child protection assessment for urban refugee children is based on the fact that the adult and adolescent urban refugees are faced with livelihood challenges that may be caused by high unemployment rate. As a result, Gomez noted, it is important to know how these challenges affect their children in relation to their wellbeing such as access to education, shelter, food and child labour.
The GAFNA boss indicated that another objective of the assessment was to identify the types of child abuses that are common among urban refugee children and causative factors or reasons for these abuses.
The findings of this process, he went on, will guide GAFNA and other development partners to design responsive and child centered programmes geared towards ameliorating some of the challenges faced by refugee children living in the urban areas.
Gomez went on to thank the UNHCR Office for their unflinching support in promoting the welfare of refugees in the country.
On his part, Falu Sowe, the lead consultant and the national coordinator of the Network Against Gender Based Violence, said the assessment report has revealed that the urban refugees are really facing so many challenges, which among them, are physical abuses, sexual abuses and abuses in the community including schools.
Sowe observed that the report will go a long way in supporting GAFNA and its partners like Child Protection Alliance (CPA) and the Department of Social Welfare among others in mapping out challenges faced by refugee children in the urban areas.
by Alhagie Babou Jallow