One of our partner NGOs, HAART Kenya, has launched a range of child-friendly educational materials this week about human trafficking aimed at Kenyan children.

Sophie Otiende of HAART Kenya said that there was a pressing need for Kenya-specific materials as the majority of resources on human trafficking were focused on Southeast Asia and were thus less relevant to the African country.

“If children are not able to relate, they cannot identify, and it is unlikely that the information will make a difference to them,” she said.

Thomson Reuters Foundation reports:

Otiende said the charity hoped the child-friendly materials – including colourful posters, brochures and a teaching manual – would be copied and used across the country in schools, youth clubs and church groups.

The manual helps teachers plan lessons on subjects ranging from basic child rights – such as their right to shelter and food, as well as an environment free of abuse – to explaining what traffickers and recruiters are.

The lessons include discussions, songs, drawings and even role-playing to get the message across.

Children are bought and sold into forced labour in domestic work, farming, fishing, herding, street-vending and begging. Girls and boys are also exploited in prostitution throughout Kenya, including in sex tourism on the coast.

The Kenyan government welcomed the new resources, saying it will help prevent trafficking as people will understand the indicators of the crime. “We are very keen to look at ways on how to empower communities to tackle human trafficking,” said Ruth Njuguna, a member of the anti-trafficking committee at the labor ministry.

There is no current official statistic on the number of children trafficked in Kenya, though the US TIP report said the government had identified 153 child victims in 2016.