Compassion International Intensifies Child Protection Across Ghana

Compassion International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on Friday intensified its child protection project across the country, by showing a 30-minute documentary on child advocacy to passengers plying the Accra-Kumasi road. The child-focused NGO, which is funding the project, is collaborating with SEWA Foundation and VIP Bus Services, to carry out the six- month intensification project. It is expected to educate about 2,000 passengers every month on child labour and encourage them to start protecting children. The documentary revealed horrifying scenes of scores of children involved in labour such as selling on the streets, fishing, working on farms and as house helps, with some in tattered clothing and walking bare footed. Realities of child labour and abuse were revealed as horrifying scenes of some trafficked children being beaten, tortured, and maltreated by their guardians and masters resulting in wounds. Some of the victims interviewed in the documentary expressed the wish of committing suicide to end the maltreatment they were going through. Sections of the public including politicians, security officials shared their views in the documentary and encouraged the public to desist from the act. Mr Amos Safo, Internal Communications and Brands Manager, Compassion International, Ghana, said the aim of the project was to conscientise the travelling public on the implications of trafficking and other related forms of abuses of children. He said it was also to bring into the limelight some issues confronting children in the society and educate the public on parental duties and responsibilities. �It is also to inculcate into the �public, laws governing child protection and supplement government�s efforts aimed at eradicating child abuse,� he said. The NGO also seeks to partner drivers in reporting trafficking issues to Motor Traffic and Transport Department of Ghana Police Service. He said the overall objective is to influence policy change to curb child labour, and also build network of individuals and groups to lobby public authorities to enforce a ban on selling children and rather place emphasis on educating them. Interacting with passengers at the end of the documentary, Mr Emmanuel Nyarko-Tetteh, Child Protection Specialist, Compassion Ghana, said there are four types of child abuses, namely physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, and child neglect. He explained that majority of children are beaten, tortured, insulted with the view of correcting them especially in the homes and schools, and noted that all these constitute abuses. Mr Nyarko- Tetteh said that although adults must discipline children, the forms and approaches they use are wrong. He said such actions lead the victims to become timid, and negatively affect their performance in school. Mr Nyarko-Tetteh said all these lead majority of children becoming nuisance to the society including engaging in all forms of vices such as robbery. A passenger, who was also a victim of child abuse, Mr Appiah-Kubi Newton, used the occasion and mentioned that he became timid in his growing years due to the abuse he suffered in the hands of his own Aunt, and urged other passengers to desist from the act. He therefore urged passengers to look out for signs of abuses on children and report to the appropriate authorities and help in the crusade of protecting them.