The Starlight Foundation, represented by our Advocacy & Engagement Lead, Ms. Priscilla Addo, participated in the West Africa Strategic Advocacy Group’s first-ever Advocacy & Engagement Lead regional workshop in Accra, Ghana. This landmark event brought together leading child rights advocates, civil society organisations, and community leaders from across West Africa to champion the voices of street-connected children in positively shaping government policy and practice.
For the Starlight Foundation, one of our most promising practices in building child advocates and advocating for justice for street-connected children is evident in our EquiAccess project. We collaborate with law enforcement agencies and stakeholders to ensure justice is administered effectively, taking a second look at how street-connected children can be safe and have access to essential services, including education, healthcare, and shelter.
These strategies have been shared widely with WASAG as a step for member organisations to adopt these practices in their local settings while contributing to the bigger goal of fostering collaborations and best practices that harness our collective power as a movement demanding access to justice and rights for every street-connected child in West Africa.
We believe that this movement will not only strengthen our voice in our duties to street-connected children but also inform the urgency for the government to develop exclusive strategies that address the rampant growth of street-connected children. We’re turning shared challenges into shared solutions and paving the way for stronger child-centred legislation and policy.
Whether it is Ghana’s five-year national strategic plan for street-connected children or Sierra Leone’s strategies to combat discriminatory loitering laws, we are united in our goals to boost child participation with regional bodies such as ECOWAS, the African Union, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
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