Ghai Larissa Award
The Ghai Larissa Award was initiated by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) to recognise, acclaim and reward an organisation or individual who has made an exceptional contribution to promoting child rights and wellbeing in Africa.
The Award’s thematic focus is selected to complement ACPF’s strategic priorities. It seeks to link policy to practice by identifying and showcasing good practice models that can be adapted and scaled up to address similar child rights challenges in different contexts across Africa.
Initially called the Larissa Award, it is a flagship initiative dedicated to the memory of Larissa, an African girl, who died at the age of five. The Award symbolises the plight of one in thirteen African children who die before their fifth birthday and million of others who experience grave violations of their right to life, protection, development and participation.
This award bearing Larissa’s name advances the wellbeing of all children in Africa irrespective of age, gender, origins or living situation. The Award has recently been renamed the Ghai Larissa Award to recognise its initiators and sponsors, Prof Dharam Ghai and Neela Ghai.
The winner of the Ghai Larissa Award receives a Statuette of Larissa and a modest financial prize.
2021 Ghai Larissa Award: Special Edition on Child Labour
The 2021 Special Edition of the Award saw two winners: The Good Shepherd International Foundation (GSIF) and the Rwanda Extractive Industry Workers Union (REWU), both for their outstanding work towards eradicating child labour in Africa’s mining industries.
GSIF has worked tirelessly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2013 to rescue children as young as five from appalling conditions in small-scale cobalt mines. Since then the Children, Not Miners campaign has helped some 4,800 children out of the mines and into education. Read their remarkable story here.
The second Ghai Larissa Award Special Edition 2021 went to REWU in recognition of its work with the Rwandan government and the owners of mines and quarries to eliminate the use of child labour in the industry. As REWU Secretary General Andre Mutsindashyaka commented, “Where there’s a will there’s a way. A child is a leader, teacher, miner, businessman or doctor -of tomorrow.”
