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Wellbeing Foundation Africa: Health, education and security needed to ensure child development

Annually recognized on the 27th of May, Children’s Day in Nigeria is a day dedicated to celebrating childhood and promoting awareness about children’s welfare. However, this year, many Nigerians will be celebrating Children’s Day quietly, as a symbol of unanimity with the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State (in the north east of Nigeria) over a month ago. In a further call to #BringBackOurGirls, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa is urging Nigeria and the global community to insist that more action is taken to ensure the safe return of all the girls. On Children’s Day 2014, the Foundation, led by H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki, is issuing a call to action for improved health, education and security for all of Nigeria’s children, most particularly those living in conflict-afflicted regions.

childrenThe Wellbeing Foundation Africa defines human rights—especially the rights of the child to unfettered access to education, health and security, as the essential building blocks of wellbeing. According to UNICEF (2013), the poorest children are four and a half times more likely than the richest to be deprived of primary schooling in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 15% of the world’s children engaged in child labour that compromises their right to protection from economic exploitation and infringes on their right to learn and play. Dedicated to upholding child rights and protecting children from all forms of mistreatment, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has facilitated various advocacy and grassroots initiatives since 2007, with the aim of ending violations of child rights.

While child labour, trafficking and abuse are common forms of child exploitation, child marriage not only constitutes a violation of human rights, but it is a health issue that has social, cultural and economic implications.  As evidenced by research, married children, who typically live within the context of poverty and gender inequality, have limited social support due to isolation, limited educational attainment, increased infant and maternal mortality, and lack of viable skills for the labour market (UNFPA 2004).

However, education is a key protective factor against child marriage and the abuse of child rights. As statistics indicate, the longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. In light of the recent events in Nigeria, it is evident that education and security are of vital importance to ensuring that all children can safely exercise their right to education and development. Partnering with organizations like the Network of Civil Society Organizations working against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL), the Foundation works towards the attainment of universal basic education for every child, adequate healthcare and support, and empowerment of all children—particularly those with disabilities.

In addition to sponsoring and supporting the national Child Rights Bill and the Kwara State Child Rights Act, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, in collaboration with UNICEF, has also encouraged the establishment of the Children’s Parliament in Nigeria to become the official voice of the child and to teach the value of dialogue and collective participation.  In June 2012, the Foundation further displayed avid commitment to child rights when the Foundation, along with other civil society organizations, signed the Civil Society Pledge titled ‘A Promise Renewed: Renewing the Commitment to Child Survival’ in Washington, DC. Pledging its support for ending preventable child deaths and reducing under-five mortality, the Foundation—as a facilitator of the United Nations ‘Every Woman Every Child’ effort, and encouraged by the recently announced and unprecedented response of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria to national challenges mainly affecting child health, calls upon all citizens and friends of Nigeria to advocate for the provision of life-saving, essential MNCH commodities, family planning, and education through the WBFA 24:7:365 Advocacy and Action campaign.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa also continues to stress the importance of midwives, through their active participation in care around the time of birth, in decreasing newborn and maternal mortality, and helping to achieve MDGs 4 and 5.  On Children’s Day 2014, Her Excellency, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, the Foundation’s Founder-President therefore urges us, “…as stakeholders in collective humanity, to recognize that challenges might seem overcoming, but our responses will empower us to ensure that our challenges do not become our excuses for this generation and those generations to come.”
Signed: Communications

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa

Email: [email protected]
Web:  www.wbfafrica.org

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