COMMUNITY CHILD WELFARE SUPERVISORS TRAINED

26 Community Child Welfare Supervisors have attended a 3-day workshop on Sponsorship Basic Training (SBT) organized by the West Gonja Area Development Programme under World Vision Ghana.
The participants were from 13 selected communities in the district including, Canteen, Mognori, Larabanga, Nabori and Bonyanto.

World Vision Ghana is a Christian relief development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities in the country to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
The organization is aimed at promoting child rights through child participation in community discussions, interactions and relationship building, allowing children to play their part in their communities and their own development. World Vision seeks at protecting the children that are exploited by adults, used as beggars, head porters, trafficked in exchange for money or sent to work as domestic workers or hawkers.
Over the years, world vision has registered about 2000 children between the ages of 4 to 8 years in 13 communities in the district. The registration was based on the criteria of selecting the most vulnerable children in cases of financial constraints, health and education and also the physically challenged.

However, World Vision’s goal was to link these registered children to donors and philanthropists in and outside the country for sponsorship. The children therefore serve as a liaison between the sponsors and inhabitants of the community. With the help of World Vision, the Sponsors have therefore aid in giving good, education, health, and creating conducive environments for these children and their community as a whole.

Furthermore, Child Welfare Supervisors (CWS) are community volunteers that supervise the children in learning and participating. They also create a rapport between the children and their donors.

In an interview with Mr. Cyril Adajawah, the Sponsorship Operations and Monitoring Manager of World Vision Ghana he revealed that, the Sponsorship Basic Training (SBT) programme was aimed at equipping the Child Welfare Supervisors (CWS) with standards and the necessary information to work with in handling the children.
He said, it also teaches the CWS on how to relate with children in order to encouraged confidence and self-esteemed in the children because most children in deprive areas have been denied of a lot of privileges which has resulted to timidity.

Moreover, the CWS were educated on child’s right and the importance of protecting child’s right. They were also taught on the signs to look out for in identifying children with special needs and also how to handle them with care and love.
Similarly, they were taken through the measures in selecting and registering other helpless children in order to give opportunity for more needy children to be registered in the communities.

By Shallom Lumor & Ms Regina Atule