UNICEF Launches ‘Neem Tree Dialogue’ to Protect Children
John Shiklam in Kaduna
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched ‘The Neem Tree Dialogue’, an initiative aimed at preventing violence against children and promoting positive parenting in five communities in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Speaking at the launch yesterday in Zaria, UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office, Kaduna, Dr. Gerida Birukila, said the initiative would strengthen families and mobilise communities to protect children from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
“We cannot build peaceful, prosperous and resilient communities while children continue to experience violence, neglect, exploitation, and deprivation,” she said.
Birukila said positive parenting requires families to recognise children as individuals with rights, dignity, potential, and voices.
“Positive parenting is not simply about changing how parents discipline their children. It is about transforming the way families understand children, as individuals with rights, dignity, potential, and voices that deserve to be heard,” she said.
She also called on traditional institutions to use their influence to challenge harmful practices and promote child protection.
Birukila maintained that the protection of children is not the responsibility of government or development organisations alone, but a shared responsibility of families, communities, traditional and religious institutions, government and society as a whole.
She described the ‘Neem Tree Dialogue’ as a platform for communities to discuss harmful practices and agree on practical actions to protect children.
“Let this Dialogue similarly become a space where communities come together, listen to one another, challenge harmful practices, and agree on practical actions to protect their children.
“When we invest in positive parenting, we invest in children. When we protect children, we strengthen families. And when we strengthen families, we build peaceful and resilient communities,” she said.
Also speaking on the initiative, the UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Dr Willy Mamah, said the project is expected to engage at least 1,000 parents in Gelesu, Tudun Wada, Zaria City, Samaru and Kongo communities through storytelling, dialogue, parenting sessions and other creative approaches.
Mamah said the initiative was inspired by a book written by a grassroots lawyer and advocate, Maryam Marwa Abdu.
He explained that the project was designed to take the issues raised in the book beyond fiction and into communities where parents, traditional and religious leaders, young people and other stakeholders could discuss practical solutions to challenges affecting children.
“The Neem Tree Dialogue is a community action initiative using storytelling and dialogue to promote positive parenting, prevent violence against children, including child marriage, and strengthen the agency of girls and boys,” he said.
According to Mamah, the initiative was a collaboration involving the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice, Women and Children Rights Empowerment Foundation, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and UNICEF.
He said parenting remained an important component of UNICEF’s programme of cooperation with government, adding that preventing violence against children required strengthening families and the wider community systems surrounding them.
“Our approach recognises something fundamental: if we want to prevent violence against children, we must strengthen the family and the community systems that surround the child,” he said.
Mamah said the parenting component would focus on positive communication, quality time with children, emotional literacy, constructive conflict resolution, and knowing when and where to seek help.
He stressed that the initiative was not intended to tell communities what to think, but to create a safe space for them to examine harmful practices, reaffirm positive values, and develop solutions they could own.
Mamah urged stakeholders to support the initiative, stressing that child protection was a responsibility shared by the entire community.