Community leaders educated on Child and Family Welfare Policy
The Ashanti Regional Office of the Department of Children has partnered the Defence for Children (DCI-Ghana) to educate the key leaders in the various communities on the content of the Child and Family Welfare Policy.
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They have also educated the group on awareness of early and forced marriages in the communities and the need to avoid them.
Addressing the participants, who included traditional leaders, Muslim and Christian Clergy and opinion leaders at a forum in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Department of Children, Pastor Stephen Darfour, said one of the best ways for the government to enrich society was by making child and family welfare paramount.
He said for that reason his department under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection had come up with a policy on child and family welfare, and added that it was necessary to explain the content to leaders of various communities.
He said it was important for the participants to know their roles and responsibilities in helping the government to implement the policy.
He mentioned some of their responsibilities to include facilitating dialogues and engagement through organised community and debate on child and family welfare issues in order to help increase their understanding of those issues.
He emphasised that community leaders, especially Unit Committee Members and Assembly Members, were to work closely with faith-based organisations and children-centred advocacy groups in matters relating to child and family welfare.
He, however, urged them to understand the content of the policy and work themselves into helping the department to achieve objectives and the vision of effective child and family welfare delivery.
Early and forced marriages
A Field Coordinator of DCI-Ghana, Mr Martin Opoku Sekyere, explained that DCI, among other advocacy groups, was committed to supporting the government in fighting early and forced marriages in communities, especially the Zongo communities.
He said it was necessary to help the participants address community crisis aimed at warding off early marriages as well as forced marriages.
For that reason, he said DCI-Ghana had already put in place Local Advisory Committees (LACs) that were tirelessly working within the various electoral areas in the Kumasi Metropolis and the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly.
