Everyday gives me the opportunity to review our past efforts and preview the future. It helps us to hone our weapon of Social Empowerment Advocacy, Child Protection and Child’s Rights and Responsibilities Independent Regulatory Body agenda. It gives us the opportunity to charge and inspire ourselves as a team in the cause to bring matters relating to children in Africa to the front burner of private and public conscience and consciousness for due respect.

It is in this spirit that I share with you today the 3^rd Attributes of a Child-Friendly Workplace: they expose staff to child protection training and coaching. A man has one mind to run the affairs of life. It is the mind which runs the homes, which also runs the businesses. If a man is stable at home, it gives its best at work.

The workplace is yet to see the best of its workforce because it is yet to be interested in the lives of the workforce beyond the workplace. The workplace crowns their star workers by considering their performance in the workplace. The truth is that no matter how effective a worker may be perceived, he is yet to scratch the surface of his/her potentials if he/she has not gotten it right with his/her family. The foundation of effectiveness in life is laid in effective home management. Though, individual employees have a personal responsibility to manage their homes, I think an organisation to which they give their lives must be interested in what should be their number one priority, their family, spouses and children.

It is therefore my submission that a child-friendly workplace will expose its workforce to child protection training and coaching. From my own perspective, child protection training and coaching are is divided into two streams: the first is to create a world fit for children through the enlightenment of every custodian in the life of the child. It is my unrepentant belief that enlightenment is superior to enforcement. In fact, the best form of enforcement is enlightenment.

The second stream is to help those who have experienced one form of abuse or the other to start a new life as God helped me to. The commitment is to help them to see that they can take responsibility for their lives today and that they cannot continue to reproduce themselves in their children and others in their areas influence. The bulk must stop at their table as they must as matter of a commitment to save humanity begin a new generation. God having helped me to a good level, I can say that the task of shaking off the impact of wrong upbringing is a seemingly impossible task. It requires, first of all the help of God and the commitment of the victim to God and change.

A child friendly workforce must be interested in helping its workforce in the foregoing area. The benefits to the workforce, the workplace, the future and humanity are limitless and priceless. A man or woman does not begin to live until he finds and understand his personal history. Childhood is the root of everyone’s personal history. Childhood is the foundation of socialization. To be interested in a man’s effectiveness in the workplace without being interested in his history is nothing but expecting water from the rock.

We once trained the entire workforce of National Orientation Agency in Edo and Lagos States on child protection issues. The training exposed them to basic issues in child protection, which must be taught. 2 years ago, we wrote to leading corporations in the country offering free child protection training for their workforce. To our amazement, only one leading bank in the country responded and we had the training for them. The responses to the training form the participants were tremendous. Till today, we still get responses from some of the participants at the training.

I think I should rest my case here today, having made the point to the best of my ability. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. I urge you friends, Think the Child, Think Today, Think the Future. Have an INSPIRED day.