NGO calls for Amplifying Voices, Using Media to Drive Change Against Exploitative Child Domestic Work

 

Centre in black is the CEO, Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre, Mrs Bisi Ajayi Kayode; flanked left, Bar. Ngozi Arinze and other CSOs, CBOs, and government agencies during a consultative forum held in Lagos.

In recognition of the role of media in shaping society, Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre (CAC) in collaboration with Street Project Foundation (SPF) tasked the media professionals on strategic and professional reporting. This was said during its consultative forum held in Lagos for key stakeholders in the media, CSOs, CBOs, and government agencies as part of the activities currently ongoing under the Nigeria Hotspot Program - Addressing Exploitative Child Domestic Work.

The event featured a panel discussion with media professionals, where expectations between NGOs and media stakeholders were explored to enhance coordinated responses to child rights issues.
This initiative is sponsored by Freedom Fund and funded by Gift of the US government. It is aimed at ending modern slavery, eliminating child exploitation and safeguarding children’s rights across Nigeria.
Speaking during the workshop, the CEO of Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre, Mrs Bisi Ajayi Kayode, said, “We are here to address a critical yet often under-reported issue—the plight of child domestic workers in Nigeria. These are children who, behind closed doors, experience exploitation, abuse, neglect, and, in many cases, profound violations of their fundamental rights”.

She said, “Their stories are rarely told, their voices often unheard, and their suffering largely hidden in plain sight. At Cece Yara, our work has consistently revealed the intersection between child domestic work and various forms of abuse, including sexual violence, physical harm, emotional trauma, and forced labour. Many of these children are denied education, deprived of care, and exposed to environments that compromise their safety and dignity”.
Continuing, Bisi said, “We must collectively ensure that reporting on child domestic workers is done with sensitivity, accuracy, and a strong safeguarding lens. Children must never be re-traumatized in the process of telling their stories. Their dignity, privacy, and best interests must remain paramount at all times”.

In addition, COO, Street Project Foundation, Eduvielawhe Olutimayin said, “In this advocacy, developing a guideline document on media coverage of Child Domestic Workers is very important because there is a need for adequate, strategic and professional reporting in protecting the image and feelings of the abused. “We need to partner with the media to achieve more results”.

In the same vein, keynote speaker, Media Consultant, Blessing Oladunjoye, speaking on the theme, “The Power of Media in Shaping Social Change Narratives”, said, “There is a need to major on a particular beat so that the journalist would have a proper understanding of the beat or the industry you are reporting.
According to Blessing, when you major in a particular beat, it allows you to carry out investigative journalism, and you are in a position to report with facts and figures, knowing that media reporting can make or destroy the image of an individual, institution or country. Every journalist should know that when you are reporting, you are educating the public, which relies on us to deliver a balanced reporting”.