Queen mother of Bongo calls for joint efforts to fight sexual abuse against children

The Paramount Queen Mother of the Bongo Traditional Council, Pognaba Abeliwine Delikiima I, has called for concerted action against child abuse, with particular emphasis on sexual abuse against young girls.

Pognaba Delikiima, who described sexual abuse against girls as culturally wrong, has particularly extended the call to her fellow traditional leaders in the region to make indulging in such acts unattractive by severely punishing perpetrators.

She said cases of rape and defilement were becoming too many in Ghanaian communities, stressing that it was high time everyone got involved to fight the menace which is a threat to the development of young girls.

Pognaba Abeliwine Delikiima I, who made the call at a two-day engagement workshop of stakeholders on Integrated Social Service Delivery (ISSD), organized by the social welfare department of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, expressed disappointment in men who have sexual desires for and exploit underaged girls.

She stressed that such men when found culpable should be apportioned severe punishment to serve as a deterrent to others.

She said: “Some men have sex with their wives and still have sex with their female children. It is an abuse of culture. So, in cases like that, traditional leaders, lawyers, the police, etc. should all come together and take the fellow on. Don’t sit down and watch. Such men should be punished very well when they do that. I don’t know why; women are plenty and yet men are doing this unnecessary evil."

I am talking not because I have heard, I am a retired educationist and I have tried cases like this, many of them, and some men have sex with their own daughters and defiling them. Why all this. it is just a disgrace,” she added.

The Pognaba urged men to consider organizing men fora to educate themselves on the effects of rape and defilement on the victims. She explained that such fora would also give men the opportunity to “talk to each other because they (rapists) are disgracing you people (all men).”

Mercy Pwavra, the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the Department of Social Welfare, speaking at the workshop, called for close collaborations between institutions to fight against child abuse and other related challenges.

She noted that close collaborations would enable stakeholders to adequately deal with such issues and work towards the interest, protection, and improvement in the quality of lives of children.

The director also charged stakeholders to take cases of abuse against children seriously whenever they are reported to them so that perpetrators can be brought to book and dealt with to give justice to victims and discourage others from committing the same offenses.

While assuring that the Department of Social Welfare will continue to work assiduously in the protection of the interest and rights of children, the director called on stakeholders including the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Education Service, Traditional Authorities, etc. to work toward the implementation of the useful suggestions raised at the workshop to curtail the abuse of children in the region.