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Crrecent/Ashmore Foundation (UK)

11 Jul 23
Susan Sabaa
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Crrecent/Ashmore Foundation (UK)

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CRRECENT Supports Former Juvenile Offender with Work Tools

As part of the Juvenile Justice Programme (Reintegration), the Child Research and Resource Centre (CRRECENT) and Ashmore Foundation(UK) presented work tools consisting of a full set of industrial sewing machine, bench grinder and a drilling machine for a discharged juvenile offender (Yaw) to enable him increase production of bamboo bags.

At 17, Yaw was placed in detention for stealing sheep for three-years. He was placed in the Senior Correctional Centre, a place meant for 18 years and above offenders to serve his sentence. At the Centre, Yaw became remorseful and made up his mind to become a better person. He paid serious attention to his lessons in bamboo craft at the Centre.

 In 2019, having served his 3-year term, he was discharged and has since been sober after constant monitoring and assessment by CRRECENT. Now 21-year-old Yaw is fully engaged in designing clutches made from bamboo and African print. He also produces hand fans and other bamboo accessories.

There are several practical challenges faced by juvenile offenders on their release, including rejection by families, on suitable accommodation, managing their lives with no savings until they begin to earn some money and access everyday services and support for their specific needs.

Juvenile offenders confined in correctional institutions are confronted by a range of social, economic and family challenges that tend to become obstacles to a crime-free lifestyle on discharge. Some of these challenges more directly associated with incarceration and transition back into society.

 It is therefore not uncommon for persons coming out of juvenile correctional centres to return to worse criminal life. Hence reintegration of these discharged juveniles is not a simple one. It involves serious conscious efforts that are complicated and difficult.

Child Research and Resource Centre (CRRECENT) is a Civil Society Organisation dedicated to the promotion of child and youth protection and development. Our vision is to contribute to building a well-integrated society that recognizes children in every sector and which creates the necessary space and opportunity to respond to their developmental needs.

CRRECENT’s flagship programme is the re-integration of juvenile offenders into society. Since 2011, the organisation has affected the lives of over 200 discharged juveniles aged between 16-20 years and their families in re-integration programme.

To support the youth we work with, please get in touch with our communication/fundraising department on 0207700671/0277459459 or e-mail: info@crrecent.org/ fundraising@crrecent.org

Girls Leadership and Participation in Governance

16 May 19
CRRECENT
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Girls and young women are the most affected by poverty across the world especially those in rural and urban rural communities. From the moment they are born, girls face cultural, educational and employment inequalities and injustice in their lives.

Girls and women experience physical and psychological violence in the form of sexual abuse, beatings, insults and early forced marriage. We know that helping girls again access to school, stay in school and progress to the highest level in the key to changing lives for good, not that of girls alone but that of families. An educated girl is more likely to grow up to be a healthy, empowered woman who can make her own choices, earn her own income, and protect and educate her own children.

Getting girls into school and to stay in school

Millions of girls around the world are still being denied an education.

PRIMARY SCHOOL: There are still 31 million girls of primary school age out of school. Of these 17 million are expected never to enter school. There are 4 million fewer boys than girls out of school. Three countries have over a million girls not in school: In Nigeria there are almost five and a half million, Pakistan, over three million, and in Ethiopia, over one million girls out of school.

LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL: • There are also 34 million female adolescents out of school, missing out on the chance to learn vital skills for work.

SKILLS: • Slow education progress for children today will have lifelong effects: Almost a quarter of young women aged 15-24 today (116 million) in developing countries have never completed primary school and so lack skills for work. Young women make up 58% of those not completing primary school.

LITERACY: • Two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are female.

Source: 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report; UNESCO Institute for Statistics database.

Reasons why girls don’t go to school, or have to drop out:

  • Some parents still have to decide which child should have the privilege to go to school, boy or girl, in the face of economic challenges.
  • Parents often struggle to meet the costs , such as books and uniforms. Girls are often expected to support their families instead, either by doing child labor or through arranged marriage.
  • Sometimes schools don’t have proper facilities such as separate, safe toilets for girls.

Together with communities we create Child Protection Committees to develop School Perfor-mance and Improvement Plans (SPIP) and implement development activities that will im-prove the school environment and make it safer for girls. So we work with communities to promote education for girls, help parents afford the costs and toilet facilities, and run girls’ clubs and mentoring projects to support them through school.

Helping young teenage mothers earn a living

Dropping out school because of poverty and teenage pregnancy, many young women do not have the skills they need to earn an income. If they find some work, they’re paid less than men for the same number of hours, have no workers’ rights and often have to wait for days for their wages.

We offer women training in the skills they need to survive – such as soap and powder mak-ing, bread and pastries baking, business management, or sustainable farming techniques. This is so that they can earn a living, feed themselves and pay for their children’s education.

Ending violence against young women and girls

Girls and young women will experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Many young women and girls living in poverty in rural communities are threatened with violence every day: at home or at school.

In deprived communities, violence against young women and girls is often considered acceptable, and offenders aren’t punished. This means there is often nowhere that women and girls can truly feel safe or get help. In one situation where we were into negotiation with traditional leaders to commence girls and young women empowerment programme, we were confronted by this interpretation; “This men and women say they have come here to give power to young women and girls so that when they are disciplined by their husbands and they can fight back.” The lot of young women and girls in rural and rural urban communities live in suppression and fear.

We’re helping young women and girls to tackle violence and stand up for their rights. We implementing projects and offering services and demand justice for survivors of violence, and support programmes to empower young women and girls. We work with a Network of Help-lines which provides assistance to young women and girls whose rights abused and suffer violence.

Gender & Empowerment

CRRECENT pursues projects to empower vulnerable young women in rural communities economically and psycho-socially through the provision of vocational skills training, counseling and micro credit. This project is part of our girl child empowerment programme for creating conditions for self-employment for mothers, especially teenage mothers (single parents) to increase their family income to reduce family poverty and increase chances for the girl child to progress from basic school to Senior Secondary School and the University. The Programme is part of the girl child empowerment for leadership and reintegration package for the released juveniles from Correctional Centers and Remand Homes in Ghana.

Girls and Boys of West Africa Secondary School engaged in group discussions on the role and involvement of on young women in leadership

Girls of Aburi Girls Secondary School engaged in group discussions on the role and involvement of on young women in leadership

Girls of Aburi Girls Secondary School engaged in group discussions on the role and involvement of on young women in leadership

Girls of Aburi Girls Secondary School engaged in group discussions on the role and involvement of on young women in leadership

Political Party Manifestos Vis A Vis Child Protection Issues In Ghana

16 May 19
CRRECENT
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CRRECENT held it’s 5th Child, Youth and Young Women Policy Advocacy Forum on Political Party manifestos vis a vis child protection issues in Ghana on November 2, 2016 at ERATA Hotel, East Legon. Dr. Bossman Asare, Head of Department, Political Science, University of Ghana. Discussants were namely Mr. Ibrahim Zubaru from the National Democratic Congress, Hon. Akua Owusu Afriyie from the New Patriotic Party Mr. Richard Adongo from the Convention People’s Party.