The International Justice Mission has contributed to helping victims of trafficking and abuse manage trauma by providing a child-sensitive interview room in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region.

The space at the Social Welfare Department, which would serve as an assessment and interview centre, was designed to make children and vulnerable individuals feel safe, ensuring their comfort and dignity are prioritised.

This is aimed at enabling victims to feel at ease and provide detailed information of their cases for the appropriate redress.

An artist who was trafficked at a tender age, rescued and transformed, provided the artwork to light the room, which is furnished with toys and other items to make the space welcoming and fit for purpose.

The initiative forms part of IJM’s efforts to enhance the practical implementation of trauma-informed care for victims of all crime types, particularly child labour trafficking.

A Client Service Coordinator with IJM, Dorothy Enyonam Ofori, explained that IJM aims to intensify trauma-informed care to victims of trafficking and abuse in the South Tongu District following the training of officials of the Social Welfare Department.

“Trauma can be sensitive when you don’t create a safe environment for the victim to be able to share information. To bring them from those kinds of trauma, we partnered with the South Tongu District to replicate what we have been learning in class, such as creating a room that will receive children who are traumatised and calm them down when the need arises,” she said.

The South Tongu District Chief Executive, Victoria Dzeklo, said the initiative would enhance efforts to nip the canker of child trafficking in the bud and ensure a sustained human resource for the area.

She underscored the predominance of child trafficking and youth migration, explaining that a campaign would be launched targeted at educating the children directly about the implications of trafficking and migration.

“We will be involving the social welfare in some of them. There are activities that we need to do for the youth and children to feel at home so that this migration of the youth and child trafficking thing will be a thing of the past”, she said.

She entreated the social welfare department to use the facility for its purpose while implementing the highest maintenance standards to ensure “sustainability and prolonged life span”.

A representative from the Regional Social Welfare Office, George Laweh, said the provision of the space would enhance investigations into trafficking and abuse cases, as it would enable victims to feel safe and provide detailed information.

“So, the impact is that it would help the office to handle victims the right way so they would not feel intimidated, and they would not feel like holding back information. So, I think the district will benefit from this donation and support, and that will go a long way to improve the child protection service that we offer,” he said.

The South Tongu District Acting Head of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development said cases of child maintenance, abuse, and trafficking are the most recorded in the area.

He expressed optimism that the facility would help in dealing with these cases and bringing them down to the bare minimum.