C/R recorded 1,115 child neglect cases last year

The Central Regional office of the Domestic Violence and Victim’s Support Unit (DOVVSU) last year recorded a total of 2,305 domestic violence cases.

Out of the number, a total of 1,115 child neglect cases were recorded with physical assault being 525 cases.

Mrs Hilda Akarimanga the Second in Command at the Central Regional Office of DOVVSU, announced this at a forum organised by the Central Regional branch of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health in Cape Coast, at the weekend.

The forum was to among others come out with a Memorandum of Understanding between the media and the Coalition to initiate programmes and projects to enhance health care delivery in the region.

It was attended by a number of NGOs, including Cheerful Hearts Foundation, Hope for Future Generations and institutions like the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service and media organisations.

The Coalition, which has a membership of more than 40, has in collaboration with the GHS engaged in activities such as preventive health care delivery in all the 17 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Region.

Mrs Akarimanga said a total of 140 defilement cases were also recorded last year, with threat of death cases numbering 111. There were 29 rape cases while child stealing was the least with three cases.

She expressed concern about the high cases of child neglect in the Region, which she stressed had resulted in increased teenage pregnancies and streetism.

“It is unacceptable for parents to give birth to children and fail to take care of their needs thereby pushing such children unto the streets to engage in various social vices, including child prostitution and drug abuse,” she said.

The time has come, she said, for parents to take up their parental responsibilities effectively to enable them to bring up responsible children for future.

Mr Bright Amissah-Nkarko, Regional Chairman of the Coalition, said the main target of the coalition was to collaborate with other partners, particularly the media, to ensure that sexual reproductive health rights and issues were effectively addressed .

He pointed out that the Region was saddled with a number of health issues and so the Coalition had embarked on a number of health programmes such as workshops on maternal and child health care, non-communicable diseases, right based advocacy, as well as immunization campaigns to educate the public on their health needs.

Mr Amissah-Nkarko said in the past three years the coalition had been able to sensitize more than two million grass root populace on issues of TB, malaria, HIV/AIDs, Avian Influenza and Hepatitis B.

He mentioned inadequate finances for programmes logistics and for mobilization and implementation; general resource constraints and lack of partnership-participation in its programmes as some of the challenges of the Coalition.**