Committee designs strategies to address children’s welfare
The Greater Accra Regional Child Protection Committee has held a meeting in Accra to discuss challenges confronting children in the society in order to map out strategies to address them.
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Each department under the committee brought on board the activities it performed in every quarter in relation to child protection issues, including the challenges they faced in carrying out those activities in their designated areas of operation.
One of the most prevalent challenges identified as confronting the sectors in carrying out their activities was lack of funds.
Implementation
At a meeting held in Accra last Thursday, the acting Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Children, Ms Miriam Nana Ama Amoah, said the committee would collate challenges children faced in the society, submit them to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (Department of Children), to further ensure the operationalisation of the policy.
She advised that children who suffered abuse or violence should not be abandoned or sent to the orphanage.
“Do not withdraw a child from the community he or she lives. Rather, try and reconcile him or her with the family, if not the immediate family, at least a member of the extended family would be ready to take up the child,” she said.
NCCE
In her remarks, the Deputy Director of Programmes of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mrs Joana Ampomah Nkansah, said the commission deemed it necessary to educate children on their civic rights and responsibilities since they were the nation’s future leaders.
She added that it was necessary to enlighten children in the country on the provisions in the Constitution on their rights and responsibilities to empower them and also involve them in nation building.
The committee
The Regional Child Protection Committee is made up of multi sectoral bodies that come together as a committee to coordinate the activities of child protection bodies in the region to ensure the proper maintenance and development of children in the area.
The committee came into existence under the new Child and Family Welfare Policy that was launched last year, to enable it, as part of the implementation process, to coordinate the activities carried out by each sector in the region.
It has representation from the Ghana Health Commission, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Ghana Education Service, the Department of Social Development, the Department of Children, Department for Community Development and the National Commission for Civic Education.
The policy
The Child and Family Welfare Policy will institutionalise a well-structured and coordinated child and family welfare system that promotes the well being of children, as well as prevent them from abuse and also protect them from harm.
It is to help regulate the formulation of child and family welfare programmes and activities to help prevent and protect children from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation.