519. The placement of children in convents is just one practice among many others that impede the education of children, especially girls, (Examples: early marriage, stigmatization and discrimination against children with disabilities, the preference given to boys in education). 520. There have been continued actions in communities to involve traditional and religious authorities in the fight against these practices. 521. In 2013, during a forum of traditional and religious leaders organized as part of the celebration of the Day of the African Child, traditional and religious leaders took a committment, through a declaration called "Notsé Declaration", to ban practices in their communities that are detrimental to children and prioritized those that value and protect them. It is in this light that in 2014, the National Federation of Voodoo Cults and Traditions of Togo, one of the signatories of the declaration, undertook an awareness campaign to its peers in the Maritime Region. 522. About 3,000 people took part in this awareness-raising campaign, including priests, priestesses and followers of voodoo cults and traditions of the maritime region, traditional rulers, representatives of the Ministries of Territorial Administration, Decentralization and Local authorities, Primary and Secondary Education, Social Action, Women’s Affairs and Literacy, national and international organizations dealing with issues relating to the protection and promotion of the rights of children, children initiated and re-enrolled in schools. These awarenessraising campaigns emphasized the need to reduce the duration of initiations to allow children to continue their studies. 523. This awareness-raising campaign was intended to draw the attention of heads of convents to the importance of education and the need to give children who are in their outfits the chance to be educated by reducing the duration of their stay in convent. 72 children benefited from this reduction during the said campaign. 524. The implementation of the "Notsé Declaration” on the fight against cultural practices harmful to children enabled 118 children to be taken out of the convent and sent to school in 2014 and 2016. 525. The abolition of primary school fees since 2008 led to an increase in the number of pupils from 1 054 549 between 2007 and 2008 to 1 412 356 between 2012 and 2013, representing an average annual growth rate of 6% over the period. 149