The National Orientation Agency ( NOA) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Monday urged community facilitators in Kaduna State to support efforts to prevent Violence Against Children (VAC) in the state.
The call was made during the opening of a 4-day sensitisation workshop in Zaria for community facilitators on ending violence against children.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that social mobilisation officers, health educators, Civil Society groups and other relevant stakeholders were participants at the workshop.
Zubair Galadima-Soba, the state Director of NOA said the agency was concerned with violence meted out against children and was committed to ensuring such an act came to an end.
He said there was a need for proper reorientation of people in order to practice good values of protecting children from harm.
Galadima-Soba noted that some of the violence meted against children was as a result of parents and caregivers’ negligence or unmindful behaviour towards the care of their children.
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He urged the participants to engage meaningfully in the workshop by properly discussing issues of VAC and draft guidelines on how to prevent and respond to such issues.
He also urged members of the public to desist from all kinds of violence so as to have a healthy and peaceful society.
Earlier, Yusuf Balarabe, UNICEF focal person said that the participants would undergo orientation on community dialogue and discuss how to facilitate effective monitoring of VAC in their communities.
He said the participants were expected to generate key solutions to address sexual, physical and emotional violence against children in their communities.
Balarabe added that video and theatre would be incorporated as complementary communication tools in engaging the people in resolving issues of VAC.
“Participants will agree on modalities for conducting community dialogues on the impact of VAC for the development of community-level prevention and response actions.
“Discussion guide through the conduct of 12 community dialogue in three local government area will be presented,’’ he said.
(NAN)
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