By Lawrencia Akoto Frempong
Dodowa, April 1, GNA— The SOS Children’s Village has organised a child protection training for stakeholders within the Dodowa and Ayikuma enclaves in the Shai Osu-Doku municipality.
The training drew stakeholders from the Shai Osu-Doku municipal assembly, the Traditional Council, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Units (DOVVSU), youth groups, artisans and other agencies within the communities.
Ms. Linda Darko, the Child Safeguard and Advocacy Advisor for the SOS Children’s Village, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), noted that the training was for stakeholders in child advocacy ranging from the social services, education directorates, health services, judicial services, and religious leaders who were central and paramount to child protection advocacy in the constituency.
Ms. Darko stated that SOS Children’s Villages was committed to creating and maintaining a caring and protective environment which promotes its core values and prevents and addresses child abuse and exploitation.
She said that the training was aimed at preventing cases of child abuse and reducing the number of incidents involving child-to-child, and adult to-child, while making children aware of their rights and their active role in child protection.
She added that the focus of the training was education and awareness which were the main challenges child protection faces in the country.
She further mentioned that cultural norms and practices were another challenge that child protection faced as a result of people being very much attached to their cultural practices, and unwilling to depart from it due to backlash from the community.
She reiterated that the fundamental issues of poverty, where a child was neglected, was another challenge that comes with child protection awareness, adding that with that children were not provided with the right environments to thrive, prosper, and ensure they were raised as right thinkers and stable members of the society.
She noted that the SOS Children’s Village was offering a form of support to the communities through its training to build the capacities of stakeholders in the areas of child protection and awareness within the communities.
“SOS is gathering efforts towards advocacy in the areas of health, education, parental protection and care, and we have put ourselves out there to ensure that once the capacities of these stakeholders in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District levels are built, there will be officials to represent child protection advocacy in the country,” she said.
She urged stakeholders to take up the issues of child protection and care by providing more education and sensitisation to parents and other caregivers within the various communities.
Naana Ayerkie Yotsu III, Queen-mother of Dodowa, noted that, traditionally, training given to children in the olden days have shaped the lives of some but with time, technology has changed a lot of ways in correcting children.
Nana Yotsu charged parents and caregivers to combine the traditional way of disciplining a child with the technological way of child upbringing as it would shape their future and groom them into prominent members of society.
She said that as traditional rulers, they have looked for measure to leverage with the assembly to demolish places where illegal activities such as drug abuse, sexual immorality, smoking and alcohol intake by under aged children takes place, noting that such places where the havens children in the communities often run to when they were disciplined at home.
“We want to join hands with the municipal assembly and the police to demolish and eradicate the ghetto areas within the Dodowa enclaves,” she added.
She further mentioned that as part of the traditional council’s advocacy on child protection, the council would liaise with the education directorate and the assembly to ensure that under aged children who have no access to education due to some issues were counseled and enrolled in schools for the benefits of their future and the country at large.
Naana Yotsu therefore encouraged parents, caregivers and stakeholders to continue with the sensitisation and advocacy on child protection and support to raise a bright and better young generation.
GNA
LS/BM