Live up to your parental responsibilities – Dept of Children
The Oti Regional Director of the Department of Children, Ms Ella Faith Ashong, has stressed the need for parents to live up to their parental responsibilities, emphasising the importance of positive parenting practices in preparing children adequately to face the future.
She therefore, called on stakeholders to strengthen partnership that would enhance child protection efforts, and pledged her outfit’s commitment to support initiatives that would improve the lives of street-connected children in the region.
The Oti Regional Director was speaking at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Dambai branch of Chance for Children (CFC), a non-profit organisation in the Krachi-East municipality of the Oti Region.
Ms Ashong said he appreciated the activities of CFC in the region, which would definitely help in addressing streetism in the region and called for greater collaboration between the Department of Children and CFC to nurture and protect children to become responsible adults.
The Dambai Branch Coordinator of CFC, Ms Huzumat Bawa Dogo, said her organisation aimed at empowering over 4,000 street-connected children and their families annually since 1999 and expressed satisfaction about their performance so far.
Ms Dogo announced that 255 street children were rescued and connected to their families from 2023 to 2024, and gave them adequate protection, education, healthcare, which would prepare them adequately for the future.
According to her, CFC had also reunified 76 street-connected children with their families and communities who assumed the responsibility in caring and protecting them and urged stakeholders in the region to collaborate with the management of CFC to expand their activities to other parts of the region to enable it to rescue more street children.
A mother of two, Maame Yaa, said she benefitted from CFC activities, and said her children were once school drop-outs who took to the streets but through the support of CFC, her children were back in school and the family provided with a monthly feeding assistance.
A Community Chief, Master Benjamin Jesus, expressed satisfaction about the work of CFC in his community, which prevented 20 children from becoming street children and were sent to school with financial support.
He also lauded CFC’s efforts in promoting community education, promotion of family enterprises and initiating savings and loan association for the community.
Stakeholders and beneficiaries including chiefs and community leaders pledged to work closely with CFC to remove the causes of streetism to ensure a brighter future for children in the region.
FROM SAMUEL AGBEWODE, DAMBAI
