By Regina Benneh, GNA
Sunyani, Oct. 17, GNA – A Deputy Director of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) has called on the public to encourage and promote family-based care to enhance the development of their wards and ensure a secured future livelihood.
Madam Georgina Mensah, a Deputy Director in-charge of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Department, made the appeal at a day’s sensitisation meeting held to deliberate on community structures in Sunyani.
It was jointly organised by the Bono Regional Office of the Department and aimed at “improving the knowledge base of participants in the care reform programme and referral pathways to strengthen the care and protection of children”.
In attendance were 35 participants that comprise queens, the media, staff of DSW as well as representatives of Department of Children and Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service Personnel drawn from the Bono Region.
She said there is the need for children to be given adequate protection all the time for them to discover their full potential.
Madam Mensah said DSW has in recent years turned down 40 applicants from non-governmental organisations and individuals who applied to establish Residential Homes for Children (RHC), adding that only 30 RHC were currently recognised in the country.
She said between 2007 and 2017, the Department closed down 85 RHC nationwide and was able to integrate 1,577 children back to their parents and extended families in 2013.
She said the Department is still visiting and monitoring approved Homes to ensure that appropriate care is given to children there.
Mr Emmanuel Kingsford Anipah, the Bono Regional Director of DSW, said the care reform initiative is the traditional way of family-based care that seeks to establish a more consistent and stable approach for caring for vulnerable children in the country.
GNA
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