Let’s stop seeing children as workhands

Kasoa, C/R-Ghana, Nov 01, GNA – Mrs Sena Owusu-Gibson, the Deputy Director of the Human Trafficking Secretariat, has asked the citizenry to end the practice of deploying children as workhands in factories, offices, farmlands and in the streets.
The senior official of the Secretariat under the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection (MoGSP) noted that while children may be allowed to gain certain skills through observation and learning, their involvement in tedious activities that inhibited growth and undermined their future should not be encouraged.
She, therefore, urged the Department of Cooperatives to halt or curtail the engagement of unqualified hands, especially children on cocoa farms.
“There can be no justifiable reason for engaging and endangering the lives of our children on our farms, factories, offices etc and, especially in tasks that do not bring them any beneficial permanence, ” she said.
Mrs. Owusu-Gibson was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop designed to build the capacity of Cocoa Cooperatives on the international and national legal framework on human trafficking.
The workshop, which also seeks to educate participants on the indicators and principles for referral and management of cases of trafficking, was attended by staff of the Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Ghana Cocoa Board.
Mr William Darlie, Deputy Registrar at the Department of Cooperatives, said it was time for stakeholders to leverage the self-motivation drive of cooperatives and collaborate with them to address societal issues.
He called for the resourcing of the Department, which is under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, to effectively fight the human trafficking and child labour menace.
The capacity building workshop was organised by MoGSP with support from Expertise France and the European Union (EU).