The Gomoa East District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mrs Constance Akuamoah-Boateng, has called on parents to regularly engage their children, especially their daughters in sex education to keep them well informed on the issue and protect them from abuse.
According to her, it was the responsibility of parents to regularly educate their teenage girls about their sexuality so that they would know how to handle sexual advances made towards them by their male colleagues.
She noted that teenage girls were always vulnerable to the sexual desires of men and that if they were not properly educated, they could easily fall prey to unscrupulous men who might take advantage of their innocence to abuse them sexually.
Mrs Akuamoah-Boateng made the call when she addressed a community sensitisation durbar on child abuse at Gomoa Nsuaem in the Central Region.
The durbar was organised by the Gomoa East District NCCE with support from Plan International Ghana, a child’s rights non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Sexual abuse She explained that the young girls who suffered sexual abuse were negatively affected in the future, adding that “parents must not shy away from discussing the topic with their children, but provide them the necessary information to keep them well informed about sex.’’
She indicated that a lot of men who abused children sexually used their status in the society to perpetrate such acts, and therefore advised young girls to report such people to their parents for the necessary action to be taken against them.
She expressed worry over the rate at which some fathers were sexually abusing their daughters, stressing that such an act was criminal and anyone found culpable would be prosecuted.
Child abuse She advised parents to be mindful about the kind of punishment meted out to their children in order not to cause them emotional and physical harm, which could affect their physical and emotional development.
She further advised parents to stop comparing their daughters to others, adding that it would rather influence their children to go astray.
The Queenmother of the town, Nana Esi Bentumaa, condemned all forms of abuse against children and called for stiffer punishment for those who abused children.
She further called on the government and child rights organisations to collaborate effectively to protect the rights of children.
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