Children Are Life Wires Of Every Nation And Must Be Protected

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that over 200 million children under five years old fail to reach their full cognitive and social potential, and the 2012 UNICEF report indicates that '34 per cent of Ghanaian children both boys and girls between ages five and 14 are engaged in child labour'. Research shows that societies that have given much attention to childhood development programmes have seen improved sustainable development. However, the state of child negligence and abuse in Ghana is very appalling despite the position of children as the nucleus of societal progress and continuity.

In Ghana, children continue to suffer from various forms of abuse from the family level to the national level. Taking experience from my childhood life as a herd-boy, I grew up to see children suffering from similar pains from abuse and negligence. In fact, children continue to engage in activities detrimental to their health and social life. Children ages 3-15 years are used as family labour to provide food and income for the family up-keep. They work in farms, stone picking, herding of cattle, carrying fire wood, and serving as domestic servitudes, Female girls between 8-17 years are given out in early marriage, Child labour abound in cocoa growing and fishing communities, exposing children to hazards such as poisoning, accidents, bad weather conditions.

Children engaged in these activities do not have access to proper clothering, footwear, and other protective materials exposing them to severe rainstorms, hot sunshine, windstorm, insect bites, snake bites, injuries from sharp objects, and attacks from dangerous bush animals. Education of children especially those in the rural and deprived communities are still very low. Children are dying from common sickness and infections such as malaria, cold, fever, diarrhea, and parasitic diseases, that are attributable to lack of access to adequate health care services, poor nutrition, inadequate parental care, domestic abuse and negligence.

On daily basis, Female girls are left to their faith as they suffer sexual abuse from Step-fathers, uncles, peers, and thoughtless men who show no mercy and advantage of their situations. Children serving as domestic servitudes are molested and abused by merciless 'employers' or guardians.

It is true that many of such children are from extremely poor families, having no father or mother, without proper guardians or external family, born to teenage mothers and fathers, and or from families with little/no readiness to care for children. However, do these faultless children have to suffer because of their situation? Why should I and You abuse or put these children in such painful circumstances? Do we really know the price of one life? There is an old adage in the Frafra Language that 'if the male calf does not mature to a bull, it does not make much noise', this implies that if one cannot take up the responsibilities of a parent, he does not bear children.

I shudder to think that Ghanaian parents are consciously 'selling out' their kids to 'unknown human vultures', whose aim is to use the blood of these innocent children to their personal interests. Also, state institutions in-charge of child protection have shown lackadaisical concern for child rights and development issues. Even though Central Government over the years have assent and ratified many national and international treaties, protocols, conventions and regulations on child rights, yet little efforts are made to implement and enforce them. Again, policies and programmes of child rights and development continue to be in the blue prints of central government's agenda, but nothing is done to execute them.

Most recommendable are Non-Governmental Organizations, who over years have shown commitment and the zeal to enforce child rights and protection. The government's School Feeding Programme, Capitation Grant and Continues expansion of educational and health infrastructure is indeed welcoming. Traditional Authorities, Religious Groups, Individual Philanthropists, and Kind Persons have contributed their quota to protecting the Ghanaian Child. Just that, these efforts combined represent just a fraction of what is needed to alleviate the plight of deprived children in Ghana.

Indeed, if one person is committed to saving and protecting one single suffering child, absolutely no child will suffer from abuse, negligence, or any other hazardous circumstance. If Central Government and Local Authorities play their role of providing adequate infrastructure and child rights and protection programmes, the country will be a safer place for all children and if families - mothers and fathers alike, play their responsible roles of parenting, the child will live a happy social life. In all that we do, it must be a responsibility of every individual to facilitate healthy environment, strengthen and provide mutual support for children to enhance their social, emotional and cognitive growth and development.

A big tree grows from the bud and if Ghana wants to reach the stage of 'Sustainable High Mass Consumption', she must protect its buds from insect-attack, that is to say, our children must be given adequate care and protection. God Bless and Protect the Ghanaian Child, God Bless Ghana!

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