Mothers of twins urged not to use them to beg

Accra, Feb 20, GNA - Mrs Lucy Peprah-Tawiah, President of the Catholic Twins Society (CTS), has urged mothers of twins to desist from the practice of using their infant twins to beg for alms along the streets.

By so doing, she said, these mothers would not only be tarnishing the good image of twins in the society, but would also be making the children to cultivate the bad habit of begging, thus becoming lazy when they grew up.

Mrs Peprah-Tawiah made the call in Accra when she presented five million cedis to five unemployed mothers of twins on behalf of the Society, whose cardinal aim is to engage in charitable works, and to support the Catholic Church in its role as a provider for the needy in society.

She said the amount was a contributed by members of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church branch of CTS. The beneficiaries are to use it as capital so that they would stop begging.

She noted that the traditional belief of most people in society was that by giving birth to twins, blessings and riches are bestowed on the parents, since twins have innate fortune.

Mrs Peprah-Tawiah expressed regret that most parents of twins abused this belief by putting the infants in the scorching sun while begging for alms along the streets.

The CTS President reminded parents of twins that they have a responsibility to cater for their young ones and to ensure that they did not become liabilities to society.

She pledged the society's readiness to monitor the activities of parents of twins to ensure that "we get them off the streets", adding, "if you go and hide somewhere, we are going to find you out". Present at the ceremony was the Reverend Father Raphael Attah-Donkor, Parish Priest of the Saint Theresa's Catholic Church at Kaneshie, a twin, and the Reverend Sister Faustina Ganaa of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, also a twin.