Give children good role modeling – Department of Children

Madam Latifa Abobo Siddique, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Children has advised parents, families, and communities to ensure good role modeling for their children for them to grow to achieve their dreams.

She said children often learn a lot from adults and if the lifestyle of such adults was not the best, they would grow to pick up such behaviors and their future would be destroyed.

Madam Siddique gave the advice during the Upper West Regional edition of the President’s End of Year Children’s Party held at Chegli in the Wa Municipal Assembly.

The children drawn from three communities in the Wa Municipality namely; Chegli, Kperisi and Konjiehi communities showed great excitement through dancing to melodious musical songs after receiving lots of giveaways.

The Regional Director of the Department of Children said the President’s End of Year Party was an annual event through which the President got the opportunity to express his love towards the children to make them celebrate and feel at home.

She said most importantly, it was also an opportunity for them to remind both parents and the children of their roles and responsibilities to complement government’s effort to carve a better future for all.

The Regional Director of the Department of Children noted however that the three communities were chosen based on some peculiar challenges they faced with regards to teenage pregnancies, child marriage, and school dropout.

Madam Siddique hinted that close to 70 percent of girls from the communities were not in school, adding that it was an opportunity for them to educate and encourage the girls to take their education serious and not give in to family/peer pressures.

Madam Charity Batuure, the Acting Regional Director of the Department of Gender also encouraged the children to take their studies serious and also called on parents to be responsible for providing their children’s basic needs.

She encouraged the girls to stick to their education and not to follow fashionable things that their parents would not be in the position to provide.

Madam Batuure announced that from now to December 2018, if any of the communities were able to ensure that all their girls stayed in school and no teenage pregnancy or school drop-out was recorded, the particular community was going to be awarded for best practice.

She said they would also provide some support to girls from the communities that would be able to progress to the Senior High School.

Speaking as a role model, Ms. Hibatu Adam, a Medical Student at the University of Ghana, said children could aspire better when they have good brothers and sisters in their families and communities to look up to.

Ms. Hibatu stressed that if all children saw every day was their sisters dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancies and child marriage among others, then they could be no better future for them.