Children and youth who participated in the training

Plan Togo has conducted a workshop training members of children’s clubs how to use a new text messaging service to report any violence they suffer.

Helping children to denounce violence

It is not uncommon for children in Togo to be victims of violence. The workshop was part of Plan’s Violence Against Children (VAC) project in partnership with Save the Children, which is training young people in 7 West African countries how to actively and effectively campaign to stop violence in their communities.

Plan is also a financial and technical partner of ALLO 111, an established free phone number that children in Togo can call if they are affected by any kind of violence. This service, which lets children call a team of trained social workers, has been in operation since January 2009 and has received over 153,200 calls. The new text messaging service aims to complement this initiative.

Measuring the magnitude

Participants were trained how to use the service

10 children from a Plan partner children’s group in Sotouboua and 5 from a group in Lomé benefited from the text messaging training. At home, they will be supported to act as trainers in their own communities.

If the children are abused, they can send a text message from their mobile phone to an application called FLSMS (frontline SMS) to the website of Plan partner Ushahidi, which will then map cases of violence across Togo. The aim of the project is to collect information about violent incidents, measure the magnitude of violence, and stimulate the reflex to denounce it.

Giving support, advocating for change

The website will also be carefully monitored by a trained administrator, who will verify each case. The administrator will ensure that children who have been abused are given appropriate support by local or government partners.

At the moment in Togo there are laws against violence against children, but perpetrators are rarely prosecuted. The statistics gathered will be an essential source of information for Plan and partners when advocating for change.

Involving children

The workshop was designed to fully involve and support the children. With Plan’s coordinator and support workers, they discussed the issue of violence against children: what kinds of things can happen, and where.

Youth were trained how to use low cost video cameras and audio recorders). In this way they can highlight experiences of violence in their communities, and raise awareness.

Plan’s training team has also committed to mobilising other agencies that could be involved in the project, including ministries, non-governmental organisations and other partners. The ultimate aim is for the project to be managed by national authorities.