By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, Nov 4, GNA-Stakeholders in child protection in the Upper East Region have met in Bolgatanga to brainstorm ways to improve and strengthen preparedness and the provision of responsive and targeted social services to children in emergencies.
The stakeholders comprised the Departments of Gender, Children, Social Welfare and Community Development, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Immigration Service, National Disaster Management Organisation, state human rights institutions and civil society organisations among others.
The stakeholders discussed ways to deepen coordination among themselves to improve their activities and services provided, to avoid duplication of interventions and ensure proper targeting.
The stakeholders also discussed developments within the Tarikom Refugee Camp where huge numbers of asylum seekers were currently hosted with others within the communities.
Issues such as streetism, floods, malnutrition, drowning, sexual and reproductive health issues, teenage pregnancies, child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation among others were identified as critical issues affecting children especially those in rural areas.
The forum dubbed “Child Protection in Emergency”, was organised by the Department of Children with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and was aimed at strengthening collective response to safeguard children in the event crises or emergencies.
Mrs Georgina Aberese-Ako, Acting Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Children, noted that emergencies such as climate change, floods and conflicts and activities of violent extremism among others continued to push families and their children into emergency situations.
She said children were the most affected in times of emergencies, as many were denied proper meals due to poverty, education and healthcare, leading to abuses and noted that stronger collaboration was key to addressing the challenges.
She therefore called for intensified efforts among the stakeholders to ensure that children in emergency received coordinated services to live dignified lives.
Madam Mary Azika, a Senior Midwife with the Bolgatanga Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Health Service, noted that access to sexual and reproductive health education and products such as sanitary pads was challenging to adolescents particularly girls in emergencies.
She advocated the inclusion of education on menstrual hygiene and other sexual and reproductive health issues in the service delivery of the stakeholders to the beneficiaries.
Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Ms Rafia Mohammed, the Upper East Regional Gender Desk Officer, Ghana Immigration Service, stated that a total of 1,748 children of school going age were part of the asylum seekers being hosted at Tarikom.
She said apart from the children especially the girls being at risk of missing out on school, they were vulnerable and were at risk of being sexually harassed and called for collective efforts to protect them.
Ms Yvonne Wonchua, Assistant Director, Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, called for the service delivery to children in emergencies to go beyond the provision of food and non- food items to the provision of sustainable livelihood interventions that would empower the parents economically to ensure sustainability.
GNA