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Minister advises parents to prioritise girl-child education

 

Mrs Rachel Adjoah Apoh Opoku, a Deputy Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection, has exhorted mothers to eschew negative tendencies that will induce fathers to abandon their social responsibilities towards the education of the girl-child.

She said it was incumbent on women to show the needed respect, love and humility to their husbands so that they would not neglect their responsibilities.

Mrs Apoh Opoku, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gomoa Central, expressed these sentiments when she addressed a durbar of the chiefs and people of Gomoa Jukwa-Idankrom to climax their annual Akwambo Festival.

Parental care 

She said majority of fathers had stopped giving proper parental care to their children, especially the girl-child upon the breakdown of marriages.

The MP said good care from fathers would help reduce mass school drop-outs among girls in the Gomoa Central, East and West constituencies and elsewhere.

She urged fathers to push their daughters to pursue further studies, adding, ‘‘in future, we want more women to emerge as ministers and even vice-presidents from the Gomoa area’’.

The deputy minister cautioned people about the indiscriminate dumping of refuse, which could lead to the outbreak of communicable diseases.

Mrs Apoh Opoku warned the youth to desist from acts of disrespect and violent behaviour towards chiefs and elders in their various communities to promote peace and unity.

The MP later donated  jerseys and footballs to the youth at Jukwa-Idankrom as part of her efforts to promote sporting activities in the town.

Teenage pregnancy

Mr Isaac Kingsley Ahunu-Armah, Gomoa East District Chief Executive   (DCE), expressed regret at the high incidence of teenage pregnancy in the district.

He appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders in the area to enact bye-laws that would reduce the problem, adding that if steps were not taken, the girl-child education would suffer serious setbacks in the district.

The DCE advised people in the district to desist from politics of intolerance, which impeded socio-economic advancement of the area.

According to Mr Ahunu-Armah, the 2012 election petition had come and gone, and so all support activities of the government to reduce unemployment and other economic hardships.

Mr Kweku Aggrey, Chairman of the Gomoa Jukwa-Idankrom Akwambo Planning Implementation Committee, commended the Gomoa East District Assembly and the MP for Gomoa Central, for assisting them to complete their public place of convenience.

He appealed to the MP and DCE to help rehabilitate street lights which had not functioned for over four years now.

Persons with disabilities

In a related development, Mrs Opoku said her ministry was passionately championing the cause of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), saying it had currently registered about 288 PWDs to assist it to provide them with targeted service delivery system.

She mentioned programmes such as the Family Support Scheme and Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), which  provides cash and basic needs  for PWDs living in abject poverty.

Mrs Apoh Opoku was at this time speaking at a get-together for PWDs at Mallam, a suburb of Accra.

The programme, which was organised by the Royal Sparrows Band, was aimed at bringing the PWDs together to celebrate the Yuletide.

According to her, “the Ministry was also working tirelessly in the national planning processes to facilitate the enactment of the LI on Persons with Disability Act”, saying the inauguration of the National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD) was a clear display of commitment by the ministry to address the needs and mitigate the challenges of all PWDs, including the training in ICT and other skills to enable them to be self-reliant. 

She said statistics indicated that about 3.5 per cent of Ghanaians lived with disability and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection had made it a priority to make life as comfortable as possible for this significant population of Ghanaians, adding that discrimination and resentment among others, which were daunting challenges to Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), were being addressed by the ministry through education. — GNA

 

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