Angela Kangah, Acting Bono East Regional Director for the Department of Children, has appealed to parents, traditional authorities and religious bodies to help in the promotion and protection of the rights of children to become responsible future leaders.
Mrs . Kangah made the appeal at a day’s stakeholder engagement on Child Rights protection organized by the Bono East Regional Department of Gender, Children and Social Protection with support from the United Nations Initiative of Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and other partners at Techiman in the Bono East Regional capital.
The programme attended by the Traditional Authorities, Religious leaders, parents and the public aimed at drawing the attention of stakeholders on the need to protect the rights and interest of the child by upholding their right in the society because there were so vulnerable.
Mrs. Kangah indicated that it was the aim of the Department to see children grow with the outmost discipline in society and become accountable adults in the near future, adding that it was the duty of every adult to protect the rights of every child regardless of its origin and colour , saying “children were gifts from God and were assets to mankind.”
Reverend Prince Owusu- Asaku former Chairman for the Christian Council of Churches in Techiman, who is also the Chairman for the Bono East Regional Peace Council, noted that the Christian body was committed to educate parents on child’s rights to secure their future.
Rev. Owusu-Asaku said the Christian faith would collaborate effectively with other stakeholders, including the Traditional Authorities and the Muslim community to create an atmosphere that would bring up responsible children for the future.
Osofo Issah Takyi of the Bono East Regional Ahmadiyya Educational Unit said the Muslim faith talked much about the love for children and that they were committed to ensuring that children grow to become responsible adult.
Osofo Takyi indicated that Islam in general frowned on the abuse of children’s rights and would continue to push the education of the child’s rights protection agenda to parents who were not well-informed with such knowledge.
Nana Konadu Yiadom Ayeasu of the Techiman Traditional Council pointed out that there was the need for children to grow and develop intellectually, because a society without good children had no future.
Nana Yiadom said some traditional practices that were promoting the welfare of children to protect their rights and future would be revisited and enforced to secure their future