The Network Against Child Labour is incorporated under Section 21 of the Companies Act as an association not for gain - (Reg. 1998/003690/08)

Chairperson
Phiroshaw Camay Co-operative for Research and Education (CORE)
62 Marshall Street, Johannesburg, 2001,
PO Box 42440, Fordsburg, 2033
Tel: (011) 836 9942/3 Fax: (011) 836 9944

Co-ordinator
Karen Allan

Board Members

Beena Chibabhai
Child Welfare South Africa
Gauteng Regional Office, Umoyo House
2/6 New South Street, Ghandi Square, Johannesburg. 2001
Tel: 011 492 2950 Fax: 011 492 2970

Oupa Mosikare
Individual 1179 Porosta Street, Dube Village, Soweto, 1800
Tel: 011 983 3771 Fax: 011 403 0878

Hassina Vally
Johannesburg Institute for Social Services (JISS)
P. O. Box 241, Crown Mines. 2025
Corner Queens & Battery Streets, Mayfair. 2001
Tel: 011 837 4151 Fax: 011 403 0878

Maureen Coetzee
Johannesburg Child Welfare Society
P.O. Box 62606, Marshalltown, 2107
1st Floor, Edura House, 41 Fox Street, Johannesburg. 2001
Tel: 011 298 8500 Fax: 011 298 8590

Mission

The Network Against Child Labour exists to end the economic exploitation of children from their labour in whatever form and wherever it is found. We believe that children must be free to learn, to play and to develop their full potential.

Objectives

1. To bring together organisations and individuals that are concerned with child labour for a national lobby against child exploitation.
2. To conscientise and educate organisations, the general public and communities against child exploitation.
3. To provide information and policy guidelines on child labour and related issues to interested organisations.
4. To organise lobbies for legislation, enforcement mechanisms and social policies, which are designed to bring about the elimination of child labour.
5. To conduct action-oriented research to expose the problem in our country.
6. To intervene actively or to organise intervention where possible in reported cases of child labour.

International Membership

During the year the NACL retained membership of the following organisations:

• International Child Welfare Forum
• South African National Commission for UNESCO
• Global Campaign for Education

Introduction

In line with the mandate of the organisation the core activities of the NACL during 2005 were focused on awareness raising, research and advocacy. Other central activities were also undertaken such as networking with other relevant organisations and fundraising. Most of the work conducted by the NACL in 2004 was made possible by an 18 month grant obtained from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) to undertake three major projects, namely child trafficking awareness raising workshops, research into urgent issues facing children and advocacy around the Children’s Bill. The grant was approved in December 2003, and the first tranche was received in June 2004. During the remainder of 2004 the NACL completed the awareness raising workshops and research. Workshops to raise awareness about the Children’s Bill and devise regulations with experts in the child protection field will take place in 2005.

1.   Awareness Raising

Child Trafficking Workshops

The objective of the Child trafficking workshops funded by the NMCF was to raise awareness about child trafficking with the specific long term goal of prohibiting trafficking in children. In light of the South African Law Reform’s investigation into trafficking in persons, the NACL thought it would be important to consult those within the child protection sector through the workshops about developing strategies and interventions how on to deal with child trafficking in order to feed it into the SALRC process and garner support for separate legislation on the issues.

At the beginning of June, 2004, the Network Against Child Labour approached Child Welfare South Africa to form a partnership to conduct the Child Trafficking Workshops in the Provinces. On the 19th and 20th of July 2004, the NACL facilitated a two day train the trainer workshop on child trafficking at the Kempton Park Conference Centre to train the provincial co-ordinators identified by Child Welfare South Africa. Provincially a total of 25 workshops were held between August and October 2004. A total of 693 people participated in the workshops.
These workshops have allowed the NACL to improve and expand its network base. The NACL applied for and received accreditation from the South African Council for Social Service Professionals to provide Facilitation and Participant certificates to those attending. A total of 12 Facilitation and 255 Participant certificates were issued. This will ensure that social workers and other social service professionals can apply for continued professional development (CPD) points.

Global Campaign for Education (GCE)

The NACL were presented with the opportunity to raise awareness about child labour during the GCE Global Action Week, which took place from 19-25 April 2004. The theme was “Missing an Education” and focused on vulnerable children such as child labourers and children living on street who are being denied the right to an education. The NACL made a brief presentation at the GCE Roundtable on the 20th of April, attended by members of the press and GCE members. This was followed up by several radio interviews on the 20th and 21st of April for stations such as East Coast Radio, P4 Radio and Khaya FM.

Media

Throughout 2004 the NACL compiled articles for publication in the print media to raise awareness about child labour and other related issues, such as the need for more comprehensive social security to combat child labour and other urgent issues like the growing incidence of child trafficking and child prostitution. Various editors were approached unfortunately with limited success, although we did receive some coverage in publications such as the City Press, City News and the Mercury Newspaper. Various queries from individual journalists were also answered and followed up with information packs and relevant NACL reports.

2.   Research

The aim of the NMCF funded research project was to conduct research into urgent issues facing children to fill the existing gaps in current research and provide relevant information and statistics for Gauteng. The research topics included:

• HIV/AIDS prevalence and Child Labour
• Barriers to participation in schooling in rural areas
• Child Prostitution

A research co-ordinator was appointed in July 2004 to co-ordinate and oversee the gathering of the data. Questionnaires were developed and circulated to appropriate NACL affiliates and other professionals for comment. The questionnaires were piloted in various areas. A total of 13 area co-ordinators were identified and 10 fieldworkers per co-ordinator to undertake the first two projects. The area co-ordinators received training from the NACL on the research process and the ethics involved in undertaking research with children at a workshop held on the 14th of August 2004 in Gauteng. The research co-ordinator partnered with local shelters and agencies to gather information on child prostitution.

For the survey conducted on HIV Aids prevalence and Child Labour, 7 area-co-ordinators and 10 fieldworkers were identified and trained and a total of 1366 questionnaires were completed. The Barriers to education survey required 6 area co-ordinators and 10 field workers to be identified and trained and a total 1152 questionnaires were completed. Finally 115 questionnaires on child prostitution were completed. The information gathered has been analysed and is currently being written up for publication.

Outside assistance was brought in to help with capturing the data and writing up the research. Including the NACL co-ordinator, research co-ordinator, area co-ordinators, fieldworkers, data capturers and researchers a total of approximately 46 people were involved in the research as well as several safehouse and shelter co-ordinators.

We wish to express our appreciation to all these individuals, who at short notice and under difficult circumstances, were asked to assist the NACL.

3.   Advocacy

The Children's Bill

Advocacy around the Children’s Bill continued through the NACL’s participation in the Children’s Bill Working Group. The NACL attended a meeting for the Working Group in Cape Town in February 2004. The objective of the Children’s Bill Working Group is to have the important provisions of the original South African Law Reform Commission draft re-inserted into the Bill before it is passed into law. In June 2004 we attended a follow up meeting to plan strategies.

Late in July the Government announced dates for the Parliamentary Hearings to be heard from the 11th to the 13th of August 2004. The original NACL written submission was revised and submitted again along with a request for an oral slot. Phiroshaw Camay the Chairperson and Karen Allan the National Co-ordinator of the NACL made an oral presentation before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Thursday the 11th of August 2004. An end of year meeting of the Children’s Bill Working Group was held from the 30th of November to the 1st of December 2004 to devise advocacy strategies for 2005.

5.   Fundraising

The fundraising activities of the NACL are ongoing. In mid 2004 a proposal was drawn up to fund activities from July 2005 to July 2006, various local and international funders have been approached and we are awaiting several responses. The NACL in collaboration with various partners also put in bids for funds that were being made available by the American Department of Labour and the International Labour organisation. The projects concerned education around the issue of child labour and combating the worst forms of child labour. Towards the Elimination of Child Labour (TECL) is a joint effort on the part of the South African Department of Labour and the ILO to implement the Child Labour Action Programme.

Although we were not successful in either tender we will make every effort to work with the successful bidders and where appropriate make future proposals to undertake aspects of the work.

6.   Networking

In 2004 the NACL continued to make formal and informal links with other likeminded organisations and individuals especially within the child protection sector. This was achieved through the formation of various partnerships such as with Child Welfare South Africa. Continued membership in advocacy campaigns such as the Children’s Bill and the Global Campaign for Education as well as the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) Forum in Gauteng and the Child Labour Action Programme Implementation Committee helped the organisation to strengthen existing networks. The research undertaken and workshops conducted as well as attendance at various other workshops, launches and meetings also provided the NACL with the opportunity to make itself known to new organisations and individuals.

Trafficking and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children – CSEC Forum

From the 22nd to the 24th of June 2004, the NACL attended a workshop on Trafficking hosted by War Against Trafficking Alliance. The NACL also attended the launch of research into trafficking and a talk conducted by Merab Kiremirie.

The NACL remained a member of the CSEC Forum and attended a meeting on the 1st of October 2004. The CSEC forum provided support to the NACL to bid for the ILO TECL project to design a pilot for the implementation of the Child Labour Action Programme.

The Department of Labour's Child Labour Action Programme (CLAP)

On the 16th of September 2004, the NACL attended a meeting concerning the implementation of the CLAP in terms of TECL project (International Labour Organisation’s project: Towards the elimination of the worst forms of child labour). The project seeks to prioritise the worst forms of child labour identified by the child labour action programme which include child prostitution, child trafficking, children involved in the collection of water and children engaged in criminal activities.

The NACL remained a member of the Child Labour Action Programme Implementation Committee (CLAPIC)and attended a CLAPIC meeting on the 29th of November 2004.

7.   Training

Child Trafficking Workshops

The child trafficking workshops were designed in such a manner so as to empower the participants to conduct future awareness raising workshops. This was achieved through the development of a self explanatory and self contained manual. Facilitation tips were specifically included to encourage participants to conduct more workshops in their own often more remote areas.

South African Council for Social Service Professionals Accreditation

At the end of July 2004 the NACL applied to the South African Council for Social Service Professionals for accreditation of the Child Trafficking Workshops. The application was successful. In line with the Councils programme for continued professional development (CPD), social workers or other registered social service professionals who either facilitated or attended the trafficking workshops were authorised to claim CPD points. In total 267 social workers were issued with certificates of attendance / facilitation.

Training Research Staff

The training provided to the research staff would enhance their research skills and enable them to better interact with children. It was our intention that research staff inform the children of various existing services and organisations within the community that they were aware of, thereby allowing children themselves to access these.

Where possible the NACL made every effort to employ people from the communities being researched, this was not only to acquire an accurate picture of what is happening within those communities but to actively involve and empower community members themselves.

Arising out of this work the NACL has also participated in an e-mail discussion on the ethical issues of conducting research with such children. It is expected that in 2005 such an ethical code of conduct should be agreed.

Staff Training

The NACL co-ordinator attended a two day computer course on ACCESS at the New Horizons Computer School in order to design the database to capture, contain and analyse the large amounts of information gathered during the research process. Southern African Institute of Fundraising Education and Training Workshop

The NACL also attended a Foreign Fundraising one day training workshop hosted by the Southern African Institute of Fundraising Education and Training (SAIF: ET) on the 1st of September 2004.