In her opening remarks, the Head of the Human Trafficking Secretariat, Madam Abena Annobea Asare noted that, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is committed to ensuring that government shelters operates with the highest standards in Ghana.

She urged staff of the shelters to be committed and work together to ensure that trafficked victims rescued and brought to the shelter receive the best and adequate care needed

Madam Victoria Klimova, Counter Trafficking Project Manager of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) thanked participants for willingly availing themselves to acquire the necessary requisite skills to better manage their shelters.

She added that it is important for shelter managers to be abreast with the current trend of shelter management in order to provide the best care to trafficked victims of their shelters.

Mr. Serge Akpalou, Project Manager for Ghana at Expertise France said the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of life, hence the need to change attitudes to better manage the various shelters with the utmost care it requires.

He added that Expertise France is committed to ensuring the fight against Human Trafficking in Ghana and also ready to support in providing adequate and effective care for victims.

Mr. Francis Yao Kafui Adzraku, Deputy Director and Programmes Manager of the Don Bosco Child Protection Centre took participants through Human Trafficking with emphasis on rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration, rehabilitation and the law, action plan for rescued children among others while Mr. David Shorky, Resource Management Officer of the International Organization for Migration took participants through Auditing and Financial Returns.

The general purpose of the two day training is to educate and train the shelter staffs on the basic concepts of human trafficking and the skills needed for an effective operationalization of the shelter in order to provide the best services to victims of Human Trafficking.

The shelter manageress, Madam Eunice Oparebea Osafo on behalf of the shelter staff expressed her sincere appreciation to the Human Trafficking Secretariat, MOGCSP and the EU- Expertise France Project for the training. She explained that they are going to work together as a team to ensure that the various standards in victim care are applied.

Source: MoGCSP