Mr. Emmanuel Nyarko -Tetteh, the Child Protection Specialist with the UNICEF has called for a social re-engineering process on some of the cultural practices that affected the development, growth and general well-being of the child.
He pointed out that children could be the source of information on their development and was therefore necessary that stakeholders, and society in general learnt from the child in meeting their needs, hopes and aspirations for a better future.
The Child Protection Specialist was speaking at a week-long workshop for Regional and District level facilitators on Child and Adolescent Protection Issues.
The training sponsored by the UNICEF would help the participants with manuals and tools on adolescent, gender and other gender based violence within the Ghanaian society and how best these community actors could address some of the ill practices affecting the holistic development of children.
Mr Tetteh-Nyarko said children needed not to be “back Benchers” especially on issues that affected their wellbeing and encouraged families to frequently engage them on in order to build trust, confidence and abilities exhibited by children from advanced countries.
“Our children must not be timid in this generation.In fact humility is not equal to timidity and that is where we are faulting as a society…let help our children to be critical contributors to society”.
The Child Protection Specialist has therefore stressed the need for the government to pursue more pragmatic approaches and tactics on children,” we are desiring that by 2026, child marriage would have also ended”.
Mrs Gifty Eugenia Kusi, the Deputy Western Regional Minister said ending child marriage was key concern to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to enable the girl-child stay in school and better their lots.
“Government has also provided the requisite training for social welfare workers to equip them to effectively deal with the challenges facing children”, she added.
The Deputy Minister said the government had also established a child marriage coordinating Unit, developed a national strategic framework and launched a comprehensive child and family Welfare Policy, which would tap into the positive traditional values, principles and protective practices.
She said the UNICEF-Ghana and Ghana Government’s collaboration would create a platform for communal reflection, which would trigger actions leading to behaviour and social change that offered a safe and protective environment for Children.
GNA
