Awutu Senya bans children from funerals

The Awutu-Senya District, with the support of five organisations, has enacted a bye-law that would help to improve the standard of education in the area. The bye-law bans children from attending wake-keepings and funerals grounds. Offenders would consequently be apprehended and their parents fined GHC20.00. The bye-law also bans children from patronising video centres and ridding bicycles during school hours. The institutions are the Traditional Authority, some Civic Groups, the Bawjiase Area Council, the Department of Social Welfare and the Intervention Forum, (IF) a non-governmental organisation, interested in children and women's rights issues. At a forum at Bawjiase, where the proposed bye-law was read to the people, the chief of Awutu Bawjiase, Nai Kweku Osardu II, appealed to parents to comply with bye-laws to enable their children to achieve academic success. He announced that a 30-hectare land had been earmarked for the establishment of Senior High School in the town. Madam Nora Ollennu, Chief Executive Officer of IF/PAMOJA, said her NGO was executing a project with the theme, "Promoting the Educational Right of the Girl-Child and Protecting Women Against Domestic Violence." She said the objective of the project was to help in diverse ways to bridge the gap between the enrolment of boys and girls and also to reduce the rate of violence against women. The District Chief Executive for Awutu-Senya, Mr Adams Nuhu, appealed to the people in the area to give their children, especially the girl-child, the needed education for them to become useful future citizens.