By api

Organizations seeking public funds in 2012 may have to prove more to get the money in order to continue their projects. It is a known fact that the government and the municipalities that give money for projects, at times do so through favouritism and at times give money to organizations and groups that do not  deserve to get funding.

Every year, Norway dishes out public funds to immigrant organizations and other groups that spring up ever year timing the month when money is to be given out.

The projects, in most cases are good, but 70% of the projects readily start and waste pubic funds because some officers who give out the money are corrupt.

The government and other municipal groups will soon start receiving applications from project organizations. There are, however, some organizations that only make a list of names of people claiming they are members yet not and presenting such names with the application for the money. These are organization who on getting money under false premisses turn such money into personal use.

Oslo is such municipality with no effective control and inefficiency there gives opportunity to fake organizations to ask for money using fraud-methods.

For further investigation on these situation, African Press will request the municipality to provide copies of all applications from organizations seeking money in 2012. API will study the documents and compare with the work the organizations are doing, API will also ask to have meetings with private auditors/ accountants whose duty is to see that the information given to them by organizations to approve is genuine before they give the organizations clean bill when they ask for more money from the municipalities and the government.

This year, API will also request the organizations to allow it to attend some of the projects and see if they really take place. This should be done in collaboration with the municipality if it really intends for good use of public funds.

The municipality and the government dishing out money without proper and tight control is doing the Norwegian people a disservice.

In the process of our investigations, we will seek to interview all those who have the responsibility to approve applications from organizations in an effort to find out what makes them believe the applications are genuine. It will also be interesting to know if they visit some of the projects in order to satisfy themselves that the projects are really going on as per the contents of the applications.

There are also organizations that are given money after double membership lists are delivered to the municipality and in some cases, the government. These double names are not easy to discover because of the way they are changed from the surname to the first name and so on and on. For a Norwegian, this is difficult to see because the names are not Norwegian..

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By api

According to Kenyan laws, it is illegal to circumcise girls and force them into marriage.

The question, therefore, is why little is being done to stop the practice. Is it due to unwillingness by politicians, church leaders or parents? As the practice is allowed to continue without punishing the culprits, many young girls face disaster and their lives ruined in the process. Acticism must now be encouraged in order to publicise this negative trend.
According to Kenya Nation TV “Many rigorous campaigns have been mounted to wipe out the outdated cultural practice of female genital mutilation. Although great strides have been made, some communities in the Kuria area are still stuck in this retrogressive practice. One girl’s attempt to escape the knife proved futile after the grandmother hired young men, who dragged her to the circumciser. Here now is the story of her heart-wrenching ordeal.”

 
In a well publicised campaign to stop the practice, many people are now engaged in fighting for the rights of the girls.

The same Migori episode was also aired by K24 Television. This shows the interest by the media to make known the ills young girls go through in secret and activists are now asking the government to enforce the law.

In a story 22.December covering FGM problem in Kenya the standardmedia wrote: “Iscah Aoro, the chairperson of Migori Community Negative Traditional Practices Mitigation Organization (MICONTRAP) said the girls, drawn from both Kuria East and West districts, were forced to escape to the camps in November. “They are still unable to go home because the exercise is still ongoing,” said Mrs Aoro, adding that, 290 girls are camping at St Mary Mabera Secondary School, 116 at Komotobo rescue centre, while another group of about 150 are at St Joseph School Ntimaru. She called for joint effort by all those involved in the fight against the vice, saying some of the girls at the centre were still vulnerable to being forced to undergo FGM on leaving the camps. Aoro was speaking during a workshop held in Migori town to look into reasons why the vice had not stopped, despite legislation having been passed to put a halt to it. She cited Kenya Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2010, which was enacted into law recently by Parliament. The Act prescribes tough penalties of a jail term not exceeding seven years or a fine not exceeding Sh500, 000 or both for people found guilty of the offence. The act also provides for life imprisonment for a person who causes death to another in the process of performing FGM.”

Related story:

• Norway: The Oslo Islamic Fatwa against Female Genital Mutilation signed by religious leaders

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WEST AFRICA: Call for more coordinated approach to child protection

Photo: Sammy Appiah/IRIN

Tuareg girls beg motorists for money in Ghana (file photo)

DAKAR,  – A new report on child migration in West Africa says thousands of children are being sold, exchanged or transported out of their communities each year in violation of internationally-recognized rights of the child, and calls on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to persuade governments to better protect these children.

Among the recommendations identified were: the need to align social norms, national laws and international standards of protection; the need to improve the development of children within their locale; the promotion of community mechanisms for child protection; the inclusion of children’s views in any protection regime; and joint initiatives to protect children from unlawful cross-border movement.

The 79-page report drawn up by representatives of several national and international NGOs, entitled Quelle protection pour les enfants concernés par la mobilité en Afrique de l’Ouest? (What Protection for Child Migrants in West Africa?) looked at the problem in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Togo in 2008-2010.

“At the governmental level measures are generally limited to passing national laws. Joint action might simply amount to police intercepting and repatriating children,” said Moussa Harouna, programme coordinator for NGO the African Movement of Child and Youth Workers, stressing that greater unity of action was required by governments and international organizations to support village development initiatives and set up child protection measures.

The report calls on states and development agencies to integrate child migration into their development and child protection strategies. It wants any future ECOWAS action on the movement of people, particularly children, to be an essential part of a “coherent and pragmatic policy” against human trafficking and child labour.
 
In addition, it calls on individual states to boost their ability to find victims of child trafficking and to differentiate this practice from other forms of mobility.
 
Push factors

Children may leave their communities because of conflict within the family, or the desire for education, apprenticeships or job opportunities to help their families. Some parents force their children to leave, but often departure is voluntary and motivated by the quest for a better life.
 
Zelmet Fatimah and Zeydata Amina from Niger, two girls who beg along the Teteh Quarshie Interchange, a busy highway in the Ghanaian capital Accra, say they left home because of hunger. “There is no food there,” said Zeydata, “I come here every day with my sisters and my parents to beg for money. I beg because we don’t have money and I am hungry.”
 
However, push factors are many and varied: “The children’s motivations are rooted in the current changing world… It is misleading to believe that a state, civil society and development partners have the capacity and sufficient legitimacy to end, simply, this many-sided practice of child mobility,” said the report.
 
Positive outcomes
 
While no one knows the precise scale of child migration, the report says outflows of children are generally from Mali, Niger and Guinea-Bissau, and their destinations are Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo.
 
Outflows north are less intense. The report says just 10 percent of the total number of children seeking to reach the Maghreb and Europe are from West Africa. Many are seasonal travellers, leaving for short or medium periods at the end of the farming season.
 
The migration of children is not always a negative phenomenon: migrant children send money home. Those from the same community might collectively fund a project.
 
Harouna said this had been the case in some villages in the Niger region of Makalondi, near the border with Burkina Faso, where migrant children had jointly paid to build a school for their community. The effect had been to encourage those who were too young to migrate to remain in their communities, at least for much longer, and others to return.
 
“The objective is no longer to stop migration at all cost,” Haround said. “It is also to improve conditions in the communities so that children do not have to leave to seek fortunes and a better life. Yet, even if they do, then organized protection must be provided within their host states or new communities in their own countries.”
 
oss/cb
source www.irinnews.org