November 20 was celebrated globally as World Children’s Day. According to UNICEF.org, it is a day set aside for children, by children, all over the world to help save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfill their potentials.
Children are not only future leaders, but precious assets of every nation. A child today is a potential leader tomorrow. They are our present and future assets and we must therefore, support them in whichever way we can to enable them realise their full dreams.
Sadly, in spite of the fact that we celebrate World Children’s Day every year to drum home the need to protect children, Africa has become one region where all kinds of abuses are meted out to children.
Currently in Ghana, statistics indicate that more than 90% of children have experienced some form of physical abuse. And Today must point out that cases of abuses keep on soaring almost on daily basis.
It is common to read from the dailies and hear on radios of child abuse cases. That, it must be said, is quite worrying, especially when not much is equally being done to fight child abuse in this country.
There are cases where victims have been left to live with such painful scars. Imagine a four-year-old girl being sexually abused by a 22-year-old man? Disturbing isn’t it? But this, among other forms of abuses, happen to children in this country.
WHAT is even compounding the situation is the death threats issued to children who are victims of abuses by their perpetrators. This must certainly not be allowed to continue.
It is about time that we encouraged children in this country to be bold and voice out when they are abused in any form. Today is of the opinion that in this way we will be aggressively helping to deter potential children abusers from carrying out their wicked and criminal acts.
Furthermore, the paper is happy at the launch of a campaign called Ghanaians Against Child Abuse (GACA) by the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with UNICEF. The GACA campaign, we understand, is aimed at preventing all forms of child abuse in the country.
Explaining more about the GACA movement, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Otiko Afisa Djaba, stressed: “What we seek to achieve ultimately with the Ghanaians Against Child Abuse movement is to mobilise communities, parents, traditional rulers, families and individuals across our country to stand against all forms of child abuse.”
The key thing is for all of us to stand against all forms of child abuse. In this way, we will be raising a lot of awareness on the need to prevent abuses against children.
More so, Today calls on our law enforcers to be responsive to cases of child abuses. The police should shy away from allowing such matters to be settled at home.
We must understand that child abuse offences are criminal and therefore, prosecutable under the laws of this country. All said and done, we must affirm that parents have a huge responsibility of ensuring that their children grow to realise their full potential.
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