Teen Mums Give Kids ‘Akpeteshie’

A number of teenage mothers in the country have resorted to giving their children akpeteshie or valium to enable them have uninterrupted fun. The adolescent mothers believe bearing a child should not be a hindrance to having fun, put their children to sleep and leave to the pubs, discos and nightclubs.

Nana Oye Lithur, a Gender Advocate, who was a member of a team that counselled some of those guilty of these practice disclosed this in an interview with The Mirror.

According to her, two cases had been reported about an adolescent mother of three, who gives her children valium tablets at night to put them to sleep, so that she can go out to the disco and other nightclub.

Another case, Nana Oye mentioned was that of a mother of three, who regularly gives her son akpeteshie at night when her friends come to visit, so that the boy will get drunk and sleep. She said it is likely that the children would grow up to be addicted to the drugs administered to them during their youth. Nana Oye attributed this to the fact that more often that not, the fathers of these children are absentee fathers or adolescent themselves.

She, therefore, hopes that the Department of Social Welfare and some benevolent organisation would take up the challenge of focusing on the children of Ghana, to ensure that they live a healthy life and enjoy all the rights and privileges other children elsewhere enjoy.