Campaign to Protect Children Against Abuse in Ayikai Doblo

The Movement for Ghanaians Against Child Abuse (GACA), a national campaign to protect children against abuse, has sensitised the Ayikai Doblo community, in the Ga West Municipality on the dangers of the menace.

The objectives of GACA is in line with government’s Child and Family Welfare and Justice for Children policies that provide the framework for strengthening the child protection system to prevent and respond appropriately to issues of child abuse.

The campaign seeks to use various channels, including; the media, to create awareness on child abuse and would also mobilise nationwide support to provide a safe and protective environment for children to develop to their full potential.

While an estimated 23 per cent of children, aged between five and 14 years are engaged in some form of economic activity in Ghana, this high level of abuse of all forms has prompted the need for stakeholders to take stronger action to stem the tide.

At Ayikai Doblo community, members were treated to a drama, which was coined around child abuse and its negative impact on the child and the community.

Mr Tanko Dabra, a Senior Development Officer, Ga West Municipality told the Ghana News Agency that some of the issues that were predominated in the community were teenage pregnancy and the officers were engaging the community members to understand that pregnancy does not mean, the girls should drop out of school.

“The teenage pregnancy rate in the Ga West Municipality is high and scary,” he added.

He said some of the issues in the communities were as a result of ignorance of members and they had designed an engagement tool to initiate discussions with them to solve some of their challenges.

He said the Assembly would continue to engage the community members on the issues of child abuse for them to better appreciate the concerns of government and although the Municipality had achieved some successes, they needed to do more to reduce the incidences to the barest minimum.

Mr David Tagoe, an Opinion Leader in the Community, commended government for the initiative to sensitise Ghanaians on the negative impacts of child abuse as it was a great concern of the leaders of the community and most parents did not know how to take care of their children.

He called on the organisers to regularly visit the community with some of these messages to educate members to reduce child abuse.

GACA is led by the Government in collaboration with UNICEF and with the support of Global Affairs Canada, the Korea International Co-operation Agency and the United States Agency for International Development.

Source: GNA