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.