ActionAid educates parents on child protection
A Social Development Officer of the Department of Social Welfare, Amasaman, Mr Dabre Tanko, has called on parents to acquire birth certificates for their children, especially the girl-child, to enable them to defend their daughters in cases of abuse.
“Sometimes the body features of girls under 18 years deceive some men to force them into unlawful sex and marriage to the detriment of their education. The availability of birth certificates will authenticate their arguments on their age,” he said.
He made the call at a sensitisation programme on family and child protection at Oduman in the Ga West Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.
It was organised by ActionAid Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, under its “End Child Marriage Campaign Project,” which is being implemented in the Brong Ahafo, Central, Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions.
Mr Tanko urged parents to be friends with their children to encourage free flow of information between them, adding that, “Unfriendly parents sometimes make their children to become rebellious and keep matters to themselves.”
Negative activities
Mr Tanko advised parents to monitor the movement of their children to prevent them from engaging in negative activities, such as smoking, alcoholism and other vices.
He said it was the responsibility of all citizens to protect children; however that should start from the home.
He called on community members to come together and report anti-social activities in their areas to duty bearers such as the Social Welfare and Community Development departments, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service as well as the assemblies for redress.
Police Inspector Lydia Asante of the Amasaman DOVVSU defined defilement as having sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 18 with or without her consent, while having forced sexual intercourse with an adult is rape.
She said both offences were liable to long-term prison sentences and, therefore, entreated men to shun such temptations. — GNA