As
Ghana joined the rest of the world to commemorate the Day of the African Child
this year, the Management of Barry Callebaut/Nyonkopa Cocoa Buying Limited has
pledged their unflinching support to the protection of the rights of children
in the cocoa supply chain.
The Day of the African Child is celebrated annually on the 16th
of June with an aim to commemorate the SOWETO children's uprising of 1976, in
defense of their rights to quality education.
Today, the Day of the African Child celebrates the realization
of the rights of the child, in line with the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child. The purpose is also to raise awareness of the challenges
that children face. One of the most pressing challenges facing African children
today is a lack of access to digital technology.
To mark the day, the Management
and staff of Barry Callebaut joined the chiefs and people of the Amormorso
Community in the Bosome Freho District at a colorful durbar amidst other
activities to engage with the community. This year’s
celebration was under the theme, “The Rights of the
Child in the Digital Environment,”
In a speech, the Managing
Director of Nyonkopa Cocoa Buying Limited, Mamadou Ly highlighted the
collaboration between management of Barry Callebaut and relevant institutions
in addressing and promoting child and human rights issues through
sustainability programmes in line with community structures in cocoa
communities, whiles pledging the company’s support to do more.
‘’ At Nyonkopa Cocoa Buying Limited, we subscribe to the UNICEF
Convention and are open to collaboration with other stakeholders to promote the
welfare of the African child. It is our strong belief that with our community
approach to addressing human rights-related issues, the children and women in our
operational districts will be covered. Going forward, more school clubs,
community child protection committees, and grievance mechanisms will be
established across our supply chains to support communities in addressing human
rights-related issues’’. He said.
Barry Callebaut’s vision of thriving cocoa communities is one in which all children can attend
school and are protected from harmful work. In line with this, there is
constant sensitization and engagement in communities through Child Protection
Committees to raise awareness about child labor, to better understand its
causes, and develop constructive solutions. As a strategic measure, a risk-based
approach is applied to prioritize and
deploy child protection interventions where it's needed the most, by embedding
increased due diligence in engaging communities.
The District Coordinating
Director for the Bosome Freho District, Samuel Kyei- Baffour for his part
pledged the support of the assembly to audit and review policies and
initiatives aimed at eliminating harmful practices affecting Ghanaian children, especially in cocoa communities. Highlighting on the Children’s Act of 1998 and
its implementation, he noted that gaps in the fight against the rights of
children will be addressed.
Prior to the celebration of
the Day of the Africa Child, A reading Club started with 50 children (Nyonkopa
Reading Club) was established in the Amormorso D.A school to encourage the
effective reading of books among the students in the community. This was led by
Barry Callebaut’s Human Rights Lead for Africa, Brigette
Solange Mugiraneza, and the Country Sustainability Director for Barry
Callebaut/Nyonkopa Cocoa Fred Frempong.
For his part, Chief of
Amormorso Nana JH Acquah was thankful for the establishment of the reading club
of which he was hopeful would go a long way to instill reading habits in the
children of his community. He commended the management of Nyonkopa for their
constant engagements in the community especially on the issue of child labour.
He further challenged the community members to make the education of their
wards a priority especially in these times where digital transformation is
vital. He however called for support for a functional ICT Lab and a mechanized
borehole in the school to facilitate effective learning.
Management
of Barry-Callebaut/Nyonkopa Cocoa also presented stationary worth thousands of
cedis to support the Amormorso D. A Methodist School. Students of the school
who could not hide their joy were thankful to Nyonkopa for the gesture and
promised to read more books and concentrate on their education.