By:
Kekeli Blamey/IGNews/VR
The Deputy Director in-charge of Child
and Family Welfare for the Department of Social Welfare, Fred Sakyi Boafo, has
called on the citizenry to help protect children in order to safeguard the
country’s future.
Speaking at a two day sensitization
workshop for relevant stakeholders towards the emerging care reforms and
referral pathways, and foster care and adoption regulations in child
protection, Mr. Boafo said, Inter-sectorial Standard Operating Procedure
(ISSOP) has been developed to protect children and improve family-based care
system.
He took participants through the mode
and regulations for fostering and adoption of children.
He further urged the society not to shy
away from the family-based care system as current changes in policy direction
regarding childcare requires effective participation of all stakeholders.
Georgina Mensah, Deputy Director of
Social Welfare, Standard, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation division, noted
that, a 2008 mapping and census into the conditions of residential homes,
showed that most of them did not meet standards set by the 1998 Children’s Act,
hence the introduction of care reforms to protect vulnerable children in the
society.
She bemoaned the situation where such
children face a lot of frustrations in integrating into their original families
after passing through residential homes.
She has therefore urged society to
re-embrace the traditional system where a child’s welfare is the collective
responsibility of other family members, traditional authorities, religious
bodies, and benevolent individuals.
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