Children are being used as scarescrow

School children in the Wromso community in the Asutifi South District of the Ahafo Region are being used as scarecrow in the cul­tivation of rice in the area.

The children are used to drive away the crows from feeding on the rice.

They would never go to schoool until the rice starts tassling.

Apart from impacting negatively on education, the development has also com­pounded the issue of child labour in the community.

These came to light at a gathering of the Chiefs and people of Wromso to mark this year’s International Day Against Child Labour.

It was organised by Nature Aid Ghana in collaboration with the Asutifi South District Assembly under the theme, “Intensify Action Against Child Labour,Do It Fast, Do it Now”, with support from the DKA Austria.

According to the Head Teacher of the Wromso D/A Basic School, Mr Salifu Awuni, the situation was very disturb­ing as the children could stay away from school sometimes for three weeks or a month.

He said “This is affecting learning because by the time they return to school, about three topics have already been treated which they find difficult to catch up”.

According to Mr. Awuni the parents were ignorant of the concept of child-labour “because they feel that it is normal for the children to be part of the labour force”.

He called on stakehold­ers to intensify child-labour education in the community for the sake of the children’s bright future.

Mr. Matthew Ofosu Fos­uhene, Head Teacher of the Wromso Junior High School also expressed similar concern and did not understand why children of school going age were being used for hunting and illegal gold mining, popu­larly called “galamsey” .

“Sometimes, we have to go round the community to chase school children from the farms and galamsey sites, all in the name of protecting their future, but it’s very difficult to get them to understand the concept of child-labour”.

Ms. Martha Irene Plange, Asutifi South District Director of Social Welfare, said her outfit had intensified educa­tion on child labour to enable parents appreciate education in the community as she took the gathering through the concept of child-labour.

The Chief of Wromso, Nana Essilfie Gyimah Dadieko III, commended the organisers of the meeting for shedding light on child labour which he said was a headache in the area.

He told the gathering how child-labour nearly affected the purchase of cocoa beans from Ghana at the interna­tional market, and pledged to support all stakeholders in the fight against the canker in the community.

The District Chief Exec­utive, Robert Dwomoh Men­sah,said that parents would give many reasons to justify child-labour “but the conse­quences will be very enor­mous”.

He appealed to the par­ents to see the importance of education, as he inaugurated a Community Child Protection Committee to monitor chil­dren of school going age to ensure they do not engage in forced labour.

Mr. Joseph Baradoe,Chief Executive Officer of Nature Aid Ghana, said efforts were being made to protect the rights of children in the com­munity.

He said they had linked up with the District Assemblies and the Cocoa Licensed Buy­ing Companies(LBCs) to get them appreciate the human rights of the children being used in forced labour and thanked the DKA Austria for funding the programme.

From Kingsley E.Hope, Wromso