SEKONDI-TAKORADI TO SUPPORT DEPT OF SOCIAL WELFARE (PAGE 29, JULY 17)

The Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly has given the assurance that it will support its Department of Social Welfare to discharge its duties effectively and efficiently.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Kobina Praa Annan, who gave the assurance, said for the Women and Children’s Ministry to function effectively, there was the need to resource the Social Welfare Department which had a traditional role in helping to reform and shape society.
The MCE, who was speaking at the graduation ceremony for caregivers from various care homes in the metropolis, urged the caregivers to ensure that children were given sound foundations to build on.
He said the assembly was considering the possibility of putting up a good structure for the training of women from the various care homes and other areas of the economy.
Mr Annan said it was a one thing putting up a beautiful structure and admitting children and another thing taking care of the needs of the caregivers.
“The teachers or the caregivers at these facilities are just like parents, and so their basic needs should be well catered for, so that they can also have the patience to give the needed attention to our children,” he said.
The Deputy Director of Child Rights Promotion, Mrs Joanna Mensah, urged parents not to force their children to speak English and relegate their mother tongues to the background.
She said it was sad that some children could not express themselves in their mother tongues because their parents spoke only English with them.
“English is one medium of communication, but please don’t force it on the children. At the right time, they will pick the language themselves,” she said.
She said the Department of Social Welfare had contributed a lot to the country’s development, and needed to be given the needed attention.
“It is the department that first organised boxing and beauty pageants in the country,” she said.
Mrs Mensah said the department was established in the early 1940s and tasked to cater for social problems such as growing juvenile delinquency in urban centres, due to the absence of fathers, acute housing problems, agitation and other issues.
She thanked the assembly for the proposed support and said when completed, the new building for the training of women would go a long way to ensure effective skills development to meet emerging challenges.