By Solomon Gumah
Salaga (S/R), May 19, GNA – World Vision Ghana, an international non-governmental organisation, has inaugurated the East Gonja Municipal Kids Parliament to provide a platform for children in the area to debate and discuss issues that affect their well-being.
Mr Francis Gumah, Northern Regional Operations Manager of World Vision Ghana, who spoke during the inauguration at Salaga in the Savannah Region, said the concept of Kids Parliament in the Municipality was part of measures to provide the needed platform for children to reach out to government and other stakeholders on issues that affected them in their communities.
Mr Gumah said World Vision Ghana, under its Child-Led Advocacy Programme, was using children’s advocacy as a tool to bring transformed development to communities as well as ensuring that children had life in all its fullness.
Following the inauguration, the first meeting of the Kids Parliament was held, where they discussed issues of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and violence against children in the Municipality.
Miss Jawula Sharifa Zakaria, Speaker of the East Gonja Municipal Kids Parliament said teenage pregnancy and other forms of child abuse in the area continued to limit children from attaining higher education in the country.
She called on stakeholders to invest more in children’s development, saying “Investment in proven, evidence-based prevention programmes and services can further children’s health and educational outcomes and unlock economic development potential for individuals and societies alike.”
Mrs Somah Patience, Gender Desk Officer at East Gonja Municipal Assembly, advised children in the area to use the Kids Parliament to advocate policies and programmes that guaranteed their safety and well-being.
She admonished them to eschew negative attitudes that resulted in school drop-out and endeavour to take advantage of the various interventions put in place to support their growth.
Miss Akisichah Sarafina, the immediate past Speaker of the Savelugu Municipal Kids Parliament, encouraged members to take the business of the house seriously to enable stakeholders to appreciate the challenges children went through.
World Vision Ghana later joined the leadership of the house to present a communique to the East Gonja Municipal Assembly, calling on the government to develop and revise National Plans of Action and Strategies for ending violence against children and incorporating the prevention of violence against children into national economic growth and development strategies and plans.
It further called on the government to ensure the appropriate allocation of budget for the prevention and response to violence against children.
Mr Sylvester Naah Yaw Kyiileyeng, East Gonja Municipal Coordinating Director, who received the communique on behalf of the Assembly, pledged the Assembly’s preparedness to support children’s growth and development in the area.
GNA