Reported by Nsor Paul Mensah.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in collaboration with Partners have celebrated this year’s World Children’s Day under the theme: ”Creating a Safe Environment for Children-Inclusion for Every Child” on 21st November 2022.
The event also marked the 4th Session of the National Children’s Parliament and the 5th Anniversary of the Ghanaians Against Child Abuse (GACA) Campaign.
The purpose of the celebration was to draw the public attention to different stigmas confronting girls, pregnant teens, teen mothers, children with disabilities, and advocate stakeholders for conscious and international steps to achieve inclusion for all children.
It was also to mobilize stakeholders and galvanize their support to expand the reach of the GACA Campaign.
Addressing participants, the Deputy Minister/ Minister Designate of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu congratulated all Child Parliamentarians and stakeholders for their strategic role in the advancement of Children’s rights in the country.
According to her, the GACA project has established a well-structured child protection approach that promotes the well-being of children as well as implements programmes and activities to effectively protect them from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
“It has also helped in bridging the gap between the informal and formal ways of protecting the child and providing a database for tracking the progress of child protection activities”, she noted.
Hon. Zuweira Abudu, therefore, charged the Child Parliamentarians and all children to use the knowledge acquired through the Child Protection (CP)Toolkit to educate and empower their colleagues to join the effort in the fight against social norms that are harmful to children in societies.
The Deputy Minister/Minister Designate urged Ghanaians to renew their commitment towards the protection of all children and ensure that rights due to them are fully implemented.
In her welcome address, the Chief Director of MoGCSP, Dr Afisah Zakariah said the Ministry is grateful to all partners and stakeholders for their contribution towards the success of the GACA Campaign and in promoting children’s rights.
She urged all to protect children and provide adequate resources which will enable them to have peace and happiness to grow to become responsible adults in the country.
The Ag. Director for the Department of Children, Mrs Florence Ayisi Quartey part thanked all the Partners, Traditional and Religious leaders for the support they have exhibited in promoting GACA Campaign across the nation.
The UNICEF Representative in Ghana, Mr Fiachra McAsey reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment to continue to work with both national and international partners to strengthen the child protection system in the country.