Child Prostitution Must Be Eliminated From Our Communities

DEFENCE FOR Children International Ghana (DCI), a Non- governmental organization (NGO) in Kumasi which mandate is to see the welfare of girls and young women, has organized a workshop to educate 10 communities in the metropolis on the theme: �Eliminate child prostitution.� The forum aimed at focusing on enforcing the law on violence against children, child prostitution, child neglect, lack of child maintenance, exploitation of child labour and child trafficking. The facilitators, Martin Opoku Sekyere, an officer for DCI and Owusu Agyei, a retired regional director of social welfare charged the participants to make disciples of their communities by educating their societies on the rights of their children (girls and young women) to a standard of living by launching deep into Article 27 of the UN Convention which states that children have a right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs, and the government should help families who cannot afford to provide for the children. The focus was on one thematic area which is to prevent violence against children: He said working for better protection for girls and young women through community durbars, radio programmes, training for girls and young women, community leaders, parents, professional institutions and training for district assembly persons also forms an important part since it is the assemblies which make laws for communities. The participants were drawn from ten communities in the Kumasi metropolis and are made up of the clergy, zongo chiefs/imams, assembly members/unit committee members and journalists. During interactions, it was revealed that TV games are taking centre stage in the metropolis which needs immediate attention to eradicate school dropout in the basic schools and gambling in localities. The director of DCI, Dr George Oppong said �even though we are concentrating on the girl and young women, it will be unfortunate to ignore our boys also because both come together to make a good partner. So, it is our duty to protect both for a brighter future of this country.� Participants were charged to contact DCI Ghana at any time they notice any such unpleasant acts in their community to make sure �our girls and young women enjoy a better living standard in the country.�