276 Irresponsible Fathers Made to Pay ?35m

As many as 276 men were summoned before the Kwahu South district branch of the department of Social Welfare for failing to take care of their children last year.

The department collected a total of ?34,973,000 as maintenance allowance from those men for their abandoned kids.

This was disclosed by the Kwahu South district social welfare officer, Mrs. Deborah Daisy Kwabia, in an interview with Chronicle.

She said 23 broken marriages were restored and 31 children given back to their aggrieved parents.

Mrs. Kwabia said her outfit also cared for four abandoned children before placement under the year of review.

Seventeen persons with disabilities registered at the department for various forms of assistance and four of them were assisted to train in various employable skills.

The department also assisted to pay medical bills for 131 patients, gave free treatment to 29 patients who could not afford any payment and buried three paupers. Eighty-seven HIV/AIDS patients were assisted through counseling and medical treatment.

Twenty-six out-of-school youth benefited from training to acquire skills and 20 school children were assisted financially to continue their education.

Items like sewing machines and clothes were collected on behalf of abandoned children.

Other activities the department undertook were helping the juvenile courts arrive at the right sentence options for children who came into conflict with the law, helping juvenile court offenders and truants to reform, assisting clients to pursue family related issues at the family tribunal and also helping children who violated laws through supervision of day care centers among others.

The district welfare officer said her outfit could have done a lot more to assist the people but lack of finances thwarted their efforts and therefore appealed to non-governmental organizations, religious groups and individuals to go to the department's aid to enable it professionally and adequately assist the high number of people who go to the department for assistance.