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2.5
Measures taken or planned to disseminate knowledge of the
principles and provisions of the Charter to adults and children
Given that the CPW Act is an embodiment of the provisions of the Charter, the primary
push has been for its dissemination to the community and training for the role players.
The GoL manages country-wide efforts to disseminate the provisions of the CPW Act
and its underlying child focused messages to stakeholders, community leaders and
village members. Printing of fifteen hundred copies of the Act was paid for by UNICEF
in 2013 in order to provide copies to interested stakeholders and members of the
judiciary who required the Act to properly implement it. The CPW Act has been
simplified for community members into a succinct A5 document and translated into
Sesotho by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in partnership with MoSD. MSH is
a not-for-profit corporation which aims to strengthen health systems. Their main aim is
to strengthen the overall sustainability, quality and reach of care and support
interventions for vulnerable children and their care-givers living with HIV and AIDs.
UNICEF also coordinated with MoSD to produce a simplified version of the CPW Act
which is a call to action specifically for community leaders. The Act has also been
posted on the internal government portal for further distribution and dissemination.
There has been recent discussion to make the government portal available to the
public.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) with the technical assistance of The University of Western
Cape are currently conducting the second of three, week-long training sessions on the
provisions of the Act for key role players. The first of the trainings was provided in
December 2013 to Magistrates, prosecutors and members of the Office of the Master of
the High Court. The second training will focus on social workers employed by MoSD,
members of the CGPU, and the probations unit. The third training is scheduled for
March 2014 and is aimed again at the judiciary to provide a follow up with more detail
on sections pertinent to their day-to-day work. Emphasis has been to provide the
trainings to recipients who have never before received CPW Act training. This has been
a joint project lead by MOJ, funded by Global Fund with technical assistance provided
by UNICEF.
Heads of department within the MoSD present regular radio segments on Lesotho
National radio and television to discuss issues relating to children and specifically
children with disabilities. They also facilitate annual celebrations of commemorative
days, with the assistance of donor funding, such as the Day of the African Child and
Disability Day.
The MoET in conjunction with Sentebale hold evening classes for herd boys. The
children are taught basic level literacy, as well as life-skills such as prevention of HIV,
what constitutes abuse and where to report it, and how to cook simple meals for
themselves when herding away from home. MOET also have a special education unit to
focus on the schooling needs of children with disabilities.