The second National Symposium on Human Trafficking , organized by Free the Slaves, successfully created an avenue for dialogue among stakeholders from media, civil society, government agencies, and community members on the nature and scope of child trafficking. It came as the Child Protection compact between the governments of Ghana and the United States came to a close. It was a valuable opportunity to reflect on the advances to date and challenges ahead.
Participation was limited due to COVID-19 restrictions. But interest among the public was high and number of participants rose to 91. Participants cut across a broad range of actors from survivors of trafficking, community members and advocates, civil society organisations, journalists, government ministries and departments, United Nations agencies and the diplomatic corps. The special guest of honor was the Charge d’Affairs of the United States Embassy, Christopher Lamora. The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection was represented by the acting director of the Human Trafficking Secretariat.
In the lead up to the symposium FTS published key messages in the Daily Graphic to build national awareness.
The symposium proceedings were also livestreamed on the FTS Facebook account. Several media outlets sent reporters. See some of the news coverage here and here.
Copies of the Growing Up Free endline evaluation were distributed.
CPC partner IOM who made a presentation on their work also distributed posters on prevention of child trafficking and booklets on prevention of child trafficking
Participants came out with several lessons learned and recommendations. Key among them are: increased knowledge of the efforts of the government of Ghana in combating child trafficking, seeking additional funding to combat child trafficking in other sectors of Ghana, the national symposium should be made an annual or biannual affair.
