Children on the move: preventing risky movement of Ethiopian children

Millions of children in Ethiopia are on the move or at risk of getting involved in risky movement. Running away from home, searching for a better chance of life elsewhere, children on the move are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, coercion, deception, and violence. As a result of their vulnerability, the discrimination they experience and their status as new arrivals, children who move face barriers when trying to access basic services, particularly education and healthcare.

Prevention of risky movement of children in the Northern Ethiopia corridor

To address and prevent this increasingly common issue, CHADET started the project entitled ‘Prevention of risky movement of children in the northern Ethiopia corridor’ in 2015. The Northern Ethiopia corridor is one of the main migration routes in Ethiopia.  The project aims to prevent children from risky movement by providing direct access to services and through the enhancement of community awareness. The main strategies to prevent the risky movement of children are:

•    Close cooperation with the media and community dialogue
•    Building and strengthening the capacity of child protection clubs in schools and youth associations
•    Enhancing the existing local structures
•    The support of juniors, adolescents and youth involved in risky movement through reunification, economic strengthening schemes and the provision of basic services
•    Establishing linkages with major government stakeholders and the transport sector

The project is implemented in eight major towns and cities along the northern Ethiopian corridor stretching from the Debrebirhan in North Shoa to the town of Kobbo, located in Northern Ethiopia some 750 kilometers from Addis Ababa. The towns that are covered by CHADET’s project include the towns of Kombolcha and Kemisie.

Supporting children on the move

To ensure high probability of project success, CHADET works together with different partners that have extensive proven experience in working on the prevention of abuse, neglect and exploitation related to children.  The five civil society organizations that are part of the joint project include EDA, ANPPCAN, CHADET, FSCE and PADET.  We cooperate with these organizations and other local partners along the Northern corridor, who have the best insights in the situation on the ground. By referring and linking the children at risk with our partner organizations, they are assisted with shelter care service, health and medication, food and nutrition and with the provision of social and moral support.

The project main objectives and major activities are designed to establish a referral linkage among major government stakeholders that operate in the project areas, the media, the transport sectors, schools and the community.
Major activities that were carried out in the first year are summarized as follows:
•    In collaboration with the police, the transport sector and other stakeholders, the project facilitated the reunification of 250 trafficked/migrated children as per their own interest in all the target towns.
•    In collaboration with Women Children and Youth Affairs Offices, two children clubs were established for school dropouts and they were provided with support to conduct panel discussions for their peers and the community.
•    Small-scale income generating activities were facilitated for 40 school dropout youth.
•    Vulnerable children who are at risk of migration were supported with scholastic materials to stay in school. Some of them were linked with Amhara Credit and Saving Office and given some initial capital to engage in income generating activities.
•    The children were given intensive counseling services by CHADET’s counselors and were well informed about the risks of migration before being re-unified with their families.

Enhancement of community awareness

Over the past years, CHADET has been working on the prevention of risky migrations of children with a focus on rescuing children before they leave their villages. The main activities focus on conveying educational messags on the consequences of risky migration and the need to prevent causal factors that pull and/or push children to leave their place of origin.
The main strategy used to improve the understanding and perception of the community is through enhancing their awareness about the consequences of risky child migration.  Key messages are conveyed to communities mainly through Community Conversations (CC) sessions that are conducted on a monthly basis in different kebeles of CHADET’s intervention areas. They are designed to reach as many people as possible through a multiplier effect.