Gushegu: JHS students march for peace, protection

Gushegu (N/R), Dec 05, – About 300 students drawn from nine Junior High Schools (JHS) and youth leaders in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region have undertaken a day’s peace march in the area.

The float started from the Gushegu market square through to the township and ended up at the Gushegu Municipal Assembly.

The participating schools included Gushegu M/A JHS, Gushegu E/A JHS, Gushegu NASRIA JHS, Gushegu WATANIA JHS, Gushegu Marikazia JHS, DEMONSTRATION JHS, Gushegu Girls Model JHS, Zanteli JHS, and Nawuhugu JHS.

It was organised by the Pan-African Organization for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children (PAORP-VWC), a non-governmental organisation, to present a petition to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the need for peaceful and credible elections as well as promote and protect the rights of children in the country.

Ms. Sirimba Kumoum Hanah, a student from Demonstration JHS, read the petition on behalf of her fellow students appealing to the President to create an enabling environment to enhance safety, security, and protection of all children in the country.

She said despite the fact that Ghana was a signatory to many international human rights protocols, conventions and laws, most children and young girls still lived in fear as result of human rights violations like defilement, rape, kidnapping, child trafficking and prostitution among others.

She said fallen standard of education, increasing drop-out rate especially among girls, discrimination against children to live freely in society and in dignity were due to outmoded and harmful cultural practices that needed to be changed to suit the generation.

Madam Priscilla Yeli-Oni, Gushegu Municipal Officer of PAORP-VWC, said the fight against the abuse of child rights was a collective responsibility of everyone appealing to stakeholders to ensure children were protected in society.