South-Dayi challenged to eradicate child trafficking

Tongor Dzemeni (V/R), July 23, GNA- Dr Kwame Ampofo, Member of Parliament for South Dayi, has called on chiefs and opinion leaders in the Dayi District to help rid the area of the stigma of child trafficking. He said it was disgraceful and unacceptable for the district, one of the most developed and educated in the country to be associated with child trafficking.

Dr Ampofo was addressing a durbar organized by Children and Youth in Broadcasting Curious Minds (CYBCM), an Accra based Non Governmental Organisation and funded by UNICEF at Tongor Dzemeni, in the South Dayi District on Tuesday. The durbar, which was under the theme "Sustaining the Efforts Made in Reducing Child Trafficking", was to educate, and seek the assistance and co-operation of the fishing community of Dzemeni, in the eradication child of trafficking.

Dr Ampofo said plans were far advanced to establish a police post in the community and also provide a speedboat on the lake to check child trafficking in the area. Mr Edwin Gamedeku, Volta Regional Director, Department of Children, mentioned Dambai, Kete Krachi, Abotoase and Tongor Dzemeni as some of the communities in which child trafficking was rampant in the region. He advocated the prosecution of parents who condoned the trafficking of their children for monetary gains. Ms Grace Gyima Boateng, President of CYBCM said children's issues must be treated with passion, adding that survival, protection, development and participation, the four pillars of the United Nations Commission on the Rights of the Child, must be strictly adhered to by all parents. She said children must be allowed to express their views and opinions, and appealed to parents not to exchange their children for money.

Mr Kingsley Obeng Kyereh, Co-ordinator of CYBCM said the media was needed to help educate the masses on the dangers of child trafficking and to expose those engaged in the trade. Mr Robert Fiado Korve, Vice- Chairman of the local Inland Canoe Fishermen Council pledged the Association's preparedness to expose those involved in the practice in the area. Togbe Asuo Kwesi V, Paramount Chief of Tongor Traditional Area, who chaired the function, said children were blessings from God and appealed to parents "to guide, protect and educate them to become useful citizens in future instead of exchanging them for peanuts".