Sunday, October 10, 2010

KOBEDI CAMPAIGNS AGAINST CHILD TRAFFICKING (PAGE 11, OCT 9, 2010)

A community durbar has been held at Kobedi, a farming community in the Sunyani Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region to educate residents on the dangers of child trafficking, child abuse and child labour. The people were also enlightened on the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC).
The programme dubbed “Campaign against child trafficking” was also aimed at sensitising members of the community and the public at large, to the need to desist from such acts and protect the rights of every child in the society.
It was organised by Destiny Kids World (DEKIWOLRD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Sunyani, on the theme “Child Trafficking, a recipe for disaster on the incoming generation”.
Addressing the durbar, Mr Blessed Emmanuel Asum, the Chief Executive Officer of DEKIWORLD, urged parents to be circumspect with people who go to the villages to negotiate with their children to stay with them in the urban centres.
He said most of these children are denied their basic rights after they have been given out as househelps, adding that their “mistresses” exploited them while some are lured and seduced in doing things which were detrimental to their education.
Mr Asum, therefore, urged parents to take the education of their children seriously and desist from any form of punishment that was detrimental to the child’s health and education.
He encouraged members of the Kobedi community to endeavour to perform their responsibility as parents and advised both children and the youth of Kobedi to be obedient to their parents and take their education seriously.
A representative from the Social Welfare Department, Mr George King Gasu, urged parents to desist from flogging their children anytime they went wrong and rather adopt positive and healthy correctional methods.
Mr Isaac Abu Spurgeon, also of the DEKIWORLD, mentioned that child trafficking was sometimes carried out through abduction, outright sale or deceit of a parent.
He said the causes of this canker could be attributed to many factors such as poverty, the desire to get rich overnight, ignorance and broken homes among others.

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