Make Child Welfare Number One Priority

An education officer has asked parents to make child welfare, growth and development their number one priority. Mr. Philip Addai of the Atwima-Mponua Education Directorate said they have a responsibility to provide them with adequate protection by way of guidance, proper supervision and supply of their basic needs. He denounced the situation where kids were left to fend for themselves thereby exposing them to all kinds of dangers. He was speaking at one of the series of sensitization forums held to provide the youth in the area with all the information they needed on reproductive health to bring down the incidence of teenage pregnancy. Already more than 3,500 school children in five education circuits � Nyinahin, Kwanfinfi, Mpasatia, Adobeyewura and Adiembra had benefited from the programme. Launched by the district health directorate, it is being supported by the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA). It comes amid the rising number of pupils seen pregnant at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) centres. This year, eight pregnant candidates wrote the examination in the district. Mr. Addai said children must be assisted to make profitable use of their time and discouraged from watching video and attending funerals. He expressed concern about instances where some of them were sent to help on the farm and the market during school days and said that would have to stop. Reporters of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) had gone to the area under STAR-Ghana�s media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government�s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly those in the rural communities. The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.