By Samira Larbie
Accra, March 12, GNA – Mrs Mercy Acquah-Hayford, Country Coordinator of Inerela+ Ghana, has urged women to nurture their children responsibly to help break the poverty cycle in the country.
She said women played a significant role in ensuring that poverty was completely eradiated and had to be empowered for them to also empower the children.
“Women and children are the agents of change if any country wants to make progress in all spheres of life. All we have to do is to empower our women, provide them with the necessary resources and they will do the magic,” she said.
Speaking at a day’s training by the International Network of Religious Leaders Living with or personally affected by HIV and AIDS (INERELA+ Ghana), with funding from the UN Women for religious leaders and opinion leaders on Gender Based Violence and the laws governing it in Accra.
Mrs Acquah-Hayford explained that women must ensure their children were well educated since education was the solution to everything.
“Women when educated are more likely to become entrepreneurs, and with that investment transferred unto their children the toxic cycle of poverty is turned inside-out and becomes a cycle of prosperity.
She said women must befriend their children especially the females to know how they are faring and give them proper guidance to enable them to develop as they should.
“If we want to end the cycle of poverty, let’s train our children well and let us also change our attitudes towards them positively,” she added.
She expressed regret that some mothers no longer had time for their children, making their girl child influenced negatively by their peers, which had led to teenage pregnancies or in most cases.
“So, assuming the mother had her child at age 15 and in trying to provide for that child her education is put on hold. This child without proper nurturing will also become pregnant at the same age the mother got pregnant, and the cycle continues with poverty setting in.”
“But if this child is well taken care of and educated, she becomes responsible in future,” she added.
The Country Coordinator warned of the negative effects of social media and urged parents to probe their children when they bring things home, saying, “know what your children are engage in on social media among others so that they do not go wayward.”
Participants were educated on the forms of domestic violence, Gender-Based Violence, the legal framework and implications on child marriage, the Child Protection Act, among others.
Nana Yamfoah Amua-Sekyi, Lawyer and Director of Public Education Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said, “parents must be mindful of their responsibilities.
“Being responsible doesn’t mean pampering the child or giving the child everything, and called for parental control as they monitor what they use the social media for.
Mrs Paulina Louisa Essel, Licensed Counsellor, and Deputy Chief Investigator CHRAJ, called on government to ensure that laws on domestic violence worked for the safety of children and women victims of gender-based violence.
GNA