Prevent Abuse of Children Today (PACT)
Overwhelmed by the scale of child witchcraft accusations and wider abuse of child rights in Nigeria, we established the Prevent Abuse of Children Today (PACT) campaign in 2006 to try to address the root causes of the problems.
Our aim back then (pictured below) was to raise awareness of the problems and lobby government, pastors and communities to take action.
Since then, we have delivered some incredible successes including:
Lobbying the Akwa Ibom and Cross River State Governments to enact the Child Rights Act , including groundbreaking legislation criminalising the branding of children as "witches".
Producing two award-winning documentaries - Saving Africa's Witch Children and Return to Africa's Witch Children - placing the issues squarely on the doorsteps of the international community.
Arrests and prosecutions of a number of pastors and parents who had accused their children of witchcraft and then tortured them.
Documenting and presenting various reports on the issues to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, such as the report ‘Witchcraft Stigmatisation and Children’s Rights in Nigeria’ and the paper “Witchcraft Accusations: A Protection Concern for UNHCR and the Wider Humanitarian Community?” presented by our Founder Gary Foxcroft to UNHCR in 2009.
Operation Enlightenment project delivered PACT message via music, theatre and comedy at the grass-roots level to 80,000 + people.
Fighting, and winning, various court cases brought against us by powerful Nigerian witch-hunting pastor - Helen Ukpabio.
Producing our very own Nollywood movie to combat beliefs in child witches - The Fake Prophet - with legendary director, Teco Benson.
Working with various media outlets in Africa and Europe to promote the aims of the PACT campaign
The Music Album Safe Child Africa produced with Jobazz and Faith Bluze to raise awareness of PACT
(SCA was then called Stepping Stones Nigeria)
Today, the PACT campaign continues to passionately advocate to help put a stop to child witchcraft accusations and abuse.
Our PACT Pastors group (pictured below) is building and supporting a vibrant network of pastors to combat child abuse; regular radio adverts are broadcast across Nigeria; judges, magistrates and lawyers receive training in the child rights law and important days, such as the International Day of the Street Child, are marked annually.
Through this important work, we aim to put a stop to the harmful beliefs and practices that lead to innocent children suffering some of the most horrific abuses imaginable.
