Government urged to provide temporal shelters for domestic violence victims

Some NGOs spearheading the welfare of vulnerable and abused children in the Ashanti region, have called on the government to provide shelters for children who have been rescued from all forms of abuse.

This, according to the NGOs, was necessary to ensure that children rescued from sexual abuse, early marriages and domestic violence, were put in a safer place until their parents and guardians were ready to accept them back home.

Madam Aba Oppong, Executive Director of Rights and Responsibilities Initiative Ghana (RRIG), who spoke on behalf of the NGOs, at a stakeholders’ forum in Kumasi, said children who had been rescued from any form of abuse, needed the support and protection of the government to stay safe.

The forum jointly organized by the Girls Advocacy Alliance, Defence for Children International (DCI) Ghana and the RRIG, aimed at soliciting views of stakeholders on how to effectively curtail domestic violence, child marriages, child labour and other pressing issues affecting children in the era of covid-19.

Madam Oppong said providing shelters and upkeep funds in the regions and districts, would help protect the victims from going back to the very people who abused or gave them to marriages at an early age.

Again, it would give way for victims, especially those in schools, to continue their education without being interrupted.

She called on parents and guardians not to abandon their responsibilities but be vigilant to detect and report all forms of abuse against their children for redress.