Prosecute irresponsible parents - NGO

Winneba (C/R) Jan. 29, GNA - The Director for Girl Child Programmes for Green Care, a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) based in Winneba, Ms Whyte Valerie Mensah has called on the Government to prosecute irresponsible parents. She said children were entitled to food, shelter and clothing and any parent, who failed to provide these was abusing the rights of the child and, therefore, must be prosecuted. Ms Mensah said because the Government had not been taking child neglect seriously some parents could afford to buy expensive funeral cloth and to foot other unnecessary bills but refused to pay the school fees of their children, who sometimes roamed the streets begging. She was speaking on: "The Rights of the Child, Responsible Parenting and Child Protection" at a workshop organized at Winneba by the Foundation and sponsored by Mother Child Foundation, a US based NGO, for Petty Traders, Beauticians, Fishmongers and the youth. Ms Mensah attributed the inability of some men to care for their children to the practice of polygamy that made them to father many more children than their financial resources could support. She urged parents not to force their children to engage in income-generating ventures to the disadvantage of their education, adding that it was also not proper to force their female children to contract early marriages. She advised children to obedient so that their parents would love them and provide them with their needs and also send them to school. 29 Jan. 05