Contributing to a statement made by the Minister for Children and Women’s Affairs to commemorate the 2011 Day of the African Child, which fell yesterday, the legislators pointed out that even though governments had the duty to create the enabling environment to address the problems of children, families had a bigger role to play in the upbringing of their kids.
They however called on government to put in place measures that would address challenges confronting children.
According to them, the African child was the worst among all children in the world, bemoaning that the deplorable state of the African child was a threat to the survival of the continent.
Deputy Minority Leader Ambrose Dery noted that the theme for this year’s celebration was one that should not just create an avenue for talking and raising issues about the poor state of the African child but rather, Parliament should either set up a committee or issue a communiqué to help address many of the challenges facing the African child, particularly the Ghanaian child.
Ambrose Dery, who is also the MP for Lawra/Nandom, said until Ghana achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG3) of empowering women, the poor state of children would continue to persist.
Women, he pointed out, were in the best position to take care of children when empowered through education and financial support
Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs who made the statement on the floor of Parliament through Akua Sena Dansua, Minister for Tourism and MP for North Dayi, observed that it was estimated that 30 million children lived on the streets across Africa.
She noted that in spite of numerous efforts made over the years by states, civil society organizations, private sector and families, the phenomenon of street children persists and increasingly appears to be part of daily life.
With the challenges that hinder the progressive survival of the African Child on the street, ‘Ghana continues to demonstrate its role in ensuring that the rights and welfare of its young ones are promoted and guaranteed’, she said.
Mrs. Azumah-Mensah called on ministers, MPs, stakeholders and actors to continue to support the Ministry for Women and Children’s Affairs to chart a good path for children.
This year’s African Child Day is being celebrated on the theme ‘All Together For Urgent In Favour Of Street Children’.
The day is observed to commemorate the killing of children in South Africa on June 16, 1976 by the apartheid regime when they marched in protest of their inferior quality of education
Professor Mike Oquaye, the Second Deputy Speaker, who is also MP for Dome/ Kwabenya, noted that the African child was the worst amongst all children in the world.
According to him, that situation should serve as a wake-up call for the African Union, ECOWAS and the other organs governing the continent to ensure that they conceptually acted to effect changes in Africa, which by extension would benefit the African child.
He lamented that instead of dealing with such pertinent issues, ‘we worry about peripheral matters without recourse to the human beings and in futuristic term the African child’.
Prof. Oquaye said the time had come for the entire continent to devote its resources to the betterment of the African child.
He expressed the need to maximum decentralization to enable Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies to address the issues affecting children.
The Deputy Majority Leader, who is the MP for Wa Central, Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo, on his part asserted that the emphasis for the development of the Ghanaian child, and by extension the African child, should be in the rural areas.
MP for Mion, Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, said while government was working to ensure that it gave its quota towards the development of the Ghanaian child, parents and guardians should be reminded that the greater responsibility lay with them. Â Â Continued…Â Â Â
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