June 16 every year is a day set aside to mark the International Day of the African Child. This year's event was celebrated under the theme: Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children. This year’s event had Caritas Nigeria hosting the displaced Cameroonian children in Ogoja, Cross River State, for social and educational activities that showed off their unique talents.
Students supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Protection Assistance to Cameroonian Refugees project which is implemented by Caritas Nigeria in Ogoja, thrilled their peers and spectators with contemporary and indigenous dances, dance-drama, poem renditions, songs, essay writing, debate among others.
For the young ones, the International Day of the African Child was a platform to decry the plights of the African child including child labour, child forced early marriage, starvation, deprivation, and sexual abuse, through entertainment. Children, who belong to mentor-mentee groups, also made, exhibited, and sold tasty pastries with the knowledge they gained from mentor-mentee sessions facilitated by Caritas Nigeria.
Earlier, the Caritas Nigeria Protection project team in Ogoja equally organized social activities like athletics, indigenous dances, march past, and games in commemoration of Children’s Day, a world event marked annually on May 27. Cooperating with the Ogoja local government to create priceless memories for the children, Caritas Nigeria also brought a smile to the faces of the Cameroonian children sheltered in the displacement camps in the Adagom and Ukende communities.
Report and pictures courtesy Communications Unit, Caritas Nigeria HQ