Government working to promote rights of all children – Otiko

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisah Djaba, has stated that government, through various legislations and policy initiatives is working assiduously to ensure the promotion of the rights of all children in the country.

The Children’s Act, the Child and Family Welfare Policy, the Justice for Children Policy coupled with the development of a National Strategic Framework on Ending Child Marriage, she said, would provide a holistic approach in the implementation of appropriate strategies and key interventions by different sectors of the Ghanaian Society.

Madam Otiko Djaba gave this assurance when she addressed members of the Northern Region House of Chiefs on day two of his three-day working visit to the region.

The purpose of her visit was to explain certain government policies and initiatives to very important key stakeholders including the chiefs, religious leaders, women groups as well as civil society organisations whose contributions matter a lot in the implementation of such policies and initiatives.

She appealed to the chiefs and queen mothers of the various traditional areas of the region to work towards ensuring that come September 2017, every child of school age was enrolled in school whereas those who for one reason or the other could not go back to school, her ministry was going to ensure that they were provided with skills training.

Madam Otiko Djaba also announced that her ministry was taking steps to ensure that more women benefit from the Ghana School Feeding Programme. Originally, the cooks were supposed to buy local foods to cook for school children but that had not been the case for a long time, she said, adding that “there is going to be directive to ensure that the cooks buy about 60% of locally produced food from women engaged in farming”, she stated.

She believed if this directive was fully implemented, more women would venture into agriculture and as a result get empowered economically so as to be able to cater for other family needs and ultimately become financially independent.

The Gender Minister later visited the Nyohini Children’s Home also known as the Tamale Children’s Home where she urged the Home Keeper Ms. Augustina Quainoo and her team to keep up with their duty to cater for children who did not have parents or whose background could not be traced.

She said despite the challenges they were facing as a home, she was happy per their reports, they had been nurturing infants who had grown up to become responsible adults and citizens of Ghana for over four decades.

Ms. Augustina Quainoo appealed to the Gender Minister to renovate old accommodation facilities of the home and replace worn out electrical cables that posed danger to inmates and staff of the home.

She also appealed to the minister to assist the home complete a dormitory project and a fence wall which was started by the former First Lady Mrs. Lordina Mahama and an NGO called Boya Initiative respectfully.

Meanwhile, the Minister would round up her visit to the Northern Region today Wednesday with a visit to the Gambaga Witches’ camp and meeting with various groups and chiefs in the East Mamprusi District.