Day: October 13, 2023

Mr. Prince Gyamfi, Deputy Country Director of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) has urged the media to educate the public on child labour in cocoa farming communities to safeguard the lives children.

Quoting available statistics, he said about 16 million children globally were child labourers with Ghana and Ivory coast also using Child labourers.

Facilitating in a three-day capacity building workshop on child labour and forced labour in Kumasi for about 40 Journalists , Mr Gyamfi said Journalists were well placed to fight the menace, particularly in cocoa growing areas, where it deprived the children of education, good health and safety.

The programme jointly organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and ICI aimed at deepening participants’ understanding of the concept of child labour and forced labour.

It also aimed at developing the knowledge and skills for writing ethical reports on child and Forced labour.

Mr Gyamfi observed that the consequences of child labour could be dire in times of injuries, health and educational deprivation.

He appealed to parliament to enact all the necessary laws to ensure that children and young persons received special protection against exposure to physical and moral hazards.

‘Every child has the right to be protected from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to the health education and environment’ He added.

He explained that not all work performed by children was child labour as children under the age of13 were not legally permitted to engage under employable work according to the international Labour law.

He said the ILO permitted light work for children of age13 years as long as the work did not fall under the scope of Worst Form of child labour.

Mr Gyamfi said works that were not harmful to children’s health, safety and did not interfere with their school attendance were deemed to help them to socialize, take responsibility and contribute to their countries economy.

He said minimal domestic chores could be done to assist parents on the basis of non – hazardous activities and work must be done under the supervision of responsible adult.

He stressed that light work that did not affect the child’s physical and mental development must be done for limited hours not more than two hours per day and 14 hours per week.

M r. Kofi Adu Domfeh of the Multi media group urged journalist to be security conscious and be tactful in investigating into storiesto avoid deaths and threats

He urged participants to always put the interest of the public first in writing their stories saying the journalist was always accountable to the public and must be backed with integrity.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Young girls have been urged to take advantage of the technical and vocational education and training the Government has rolled-out to guarantee their economic independence in the future.

They could also enrol in hair dressing apprenticeship, which is very accessible, to acquire lifelong employable skills.

Mrs Mary Berchie, the National President of United Hairdressers Association of Ghana (UHAG), said skills acquisition, in any form, was a tool for productivity enhancement and poverty reduction.

Speaking at the United Hair Seminar 2023, organised for members of the Association in Kumasi, she noted that a lot needed to be done by the beauty industry to attract more girls to bridge the skills gap.

The seminar was on the theme: ‘Building a Sustainable Economy through Empowering Women in the Beauty Industry,’ attended by UHAG members nationwide to deliberate on service improvement to ensure their wellbeing.

It was also aimed at finding ways to attract more girls into the profession to empower them to be self-reliant and contribute effectively to national development.

She said TVET education had helped most of the youth to gain employable skills and that UHAG would complement government’s efforts by helping young girls from deprived communities to acquire skills.

Mrs Berchie urged ladies in the beauty industry to be courteous in their jobs, to draw more customers.

Nana Ama Achiaa, Otumfuo Fontomfrom Hemaa, advised girls to learn a trade to avoid being enslaved to men, while urging them to abstain from early sex to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Madam Faustina Agyeiwaa, a beautician from Goaso, called on the Government to support the beauty industry as the professionals also contributed to the country’s economic development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Government has been urged to make rural communities a priority in terms of infrastructural development to help improve the socio-economic conditions of the people, especially women and girls.

The bad state of roads, old and dilapidated public school buildings with virtually no school logistics, lack of electricity, as well as bad state of most health facilities, have caused extreme poverty in most rural communities.

This has affected the standard of living in rural communities, particularly among women and young girls.

Madam Grace Marfo, Project Officer, of Teen Girls Club (TGC), made the call at a day’s conference for 300 teen-girls selected from some rural communities in Ashanti Region.

The conference was organised by the Self Help International (SHI), an international NGO focusing on the empowerment of the girl-child, in collaboration with the Rosemond Foundation and the Girl-child education unit of the Tafo Municipal assembly to mark the International Day of the Girl Child.

The Teen Girls Club is one of the thematic areas of Self-Help International, which seeks to empower women and girls by providing them with various interventions in some rural communities in Ashanti Region.

Women and girls from Bedabour, Nkontomire, Beposo, Kukubos and Timeabu in the Atwima Mponua District of Ashanti Region are benefiting from the various interventions to improve on their living standards.

The girls are being supported with extra classes, provision of reusable sanitary pads and financial assistance to go to school.

Among the areas being focused for the women are agriculture and entrepreneurship development, promoting good health and nutrition as well as women and girl-child empowerment.

The aim is to help reduce poverty, hunger, while helping women in rural communities to support their families.

Madam Marfo said these Interventions would help the girls stay in school to attain high academic laurels and discourage them from engaging in antisocial acts that would lead them to teen-age pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

She said the dilapidated nature of roads also hindered women to move to bigger communities to sell their farm produce and so such women were mostly supported to make them self-reliant.

Madam Betty Drah, Tafo Municipal Director of Education, said recognising the international day of the girl – child would help promote the importance of girls’ education and rights.

She said girls also had potentials as the future workforce so their voices must be amplified for them to live in pride.

Madam Drah said young girls must not be lured into early marriages, adding that, this affected them negatively.

Madam Ama Nyantah Boateng, Acting Regional Director of the Department of Gender encouraged the girls to report to the Police if they were abused in any form.

She said girls had equal rights and wellbeing as their male counterparts and so they must be well educated to contribute immensely to the home and society.

Discriminating against the girl child must not be encouraged, she stressed.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South has called on government to sufficiently resource National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and local assemblies for effective discharge of their duties.

She lamented the devastation her constituents were going through because of tidal waves attacks and flooding situation in different communities with the Municipal NADMO and the Municipal Assembly doing nothing tangible to alleviate their suffering.

Madam Gomashie made the call when she presented to Assembly members, her constituency’s share of former President Mahama’s donation of bags of rice, student mattresses, pieces of blankets, cartons of canned fish and tomatoes, and litres of cooking oil, to MPs in Volta Region’s three coastal constituencies meant for flood and tidal waves victims.

A recent storm surge on Wednesday, September 20 flooded about 1,000 homes in communities including Blekusu, Agavedzi, Horvi, Abutiakope, Agorkedzi and Dzaflagbe in Anloga, Keta and Ketu South Municipalities, rendering people homeless with livestock, businesses, canoes and fishing nets also lost as a result.

Aside the September 20 disaster, many communities in Ketu South including Agbozume, Hatsukope, Avoeme Aluwoe, Aletame and parts of Klikor had been flooded displacing people.

Madam Gomashie said while people suffered these natural disasters, a key government agency like NADMO, mandated to manage disasters by coordinating government resources among others to respond effectively to disasters to improve livelihood and reduce poverty, would only visit affected communities to assess the situation without giving victims relief items.

She said similarly, the Assembly, the chief representative of the Central Government mandated to see to the wellbeing of people, would not offer any support to victims.

‘Government has collapsed NADMO and the local government. That is why we see this dist

properties with people severely affected but we don’t see NADMO and the Assembly doing anything.’

Some Assembly members who spoke to Ghana News Agency (GNA) thanked the MP and the former President for being concerned about their plight and urged other benevolent individuals and groups to come to their aid to reduce their suffering saying, hundreds had been affected.

Ms Faustina Elikplim Korwu, Assembly member for Avoeme West said; ‘We’re very grateful for these items. When it happened, we didn’t know where to turn to for help. We called on the Assembly, the NADMO, but no help came. It was very frustrating.’

‘We’re likely to get into trouble sharing these items because in my area alone, 278 people are homeless. So, who will take and who will not take? We appeal for more support including Wellington boots because the floods are still here in the Agbozume suburbs,’ Mr Gilbert Kwaku Nuwoku, Assemblyman for Ahorkpoe Electoral Area said.

Ms Forgive Amedi, a lactating mother, said the flooding situation was becoming unbearable for her, noting that apart from hustling to sleep (because she lost her home to the floods), she still had to care for her little child.

‘I’m only praying that I can also benefit from this because the flood victims are many,’ she told the GNA.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) Sanitation and Water Project (SWP), as part of its project component, has handed over 38 institutional sanitation facilities to schools and health facilities in the Ashanti Region.

The beneficiaries included the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Kwadaso, Old Tafo, Ejisu, Oforikrom, Suame, Asokore-Mampong and Asokwa municipal assemblies.

The facilities were 11-seater gender and disability friendly toilets with changing rooms for girls, storage systems, and constant water supply.

Dr Freda Prempeh, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, during the handing over, said the Government prioritised clean and sound environment for every citizen, to ensure the country was judged among the cleanest countries in Africa.

She said it had been a dent on Ghana’s image when access to decent toilets facilities in schools was a challenge. As of 2016, less than 70 per cent of basic schools had access to toilets during school hours.

‘With support from the World Bank and through the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) SWP, the Government began a process of reversing this situation by providing 406 modern toilets to 260 schools in the Greater Accra Region among other WASH interventions.

‘With the project adjudged the most impactful urban project of the decade, the World Bank willingly agreed to a government proposal to extend it beyond the 2020 deadline to focus on the GKMA,’ Dr Prempeh said.

Since 2021, the GKMA-SWP had continued to pursue an agenda to provide 129 modern toilets to about 90 selected schools and healthcare facilities in the Ashanti Region, to provide relief for about 200,000 school children, teachers, patients, and other workers.

She called for good maintenance of the facility because if they failed to function, Ghana risked losing out on all the other components of the GKMA Project, which included 30,000 household toilets, extension of piped water supply to 5,000 households, and capacity development for sanitation and water supply institutions.

Ms Anna Cestari, World Bank Practice Manager for Water in West and Central Africa, said the Bank was committed to supporting the Government of Ghana to make progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Six, which highlighted access to potable water and sanitation.

Providing reliable access to water and sanitation was essential for the well-being of the citizens and the achievement of human capital development.

Source: Ghana News Agency