<<Print>>

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur says the vulnerable and aged would not be left out in the ministry�s quest to secure a better life for people. According to her, there was the need to create better avenues where the vulnerable and aged will be well taken care of and adequately protected in the country. Nana Oye stated this when she paid a working visit to some institutions under her ministry including the Shelter for Abused Children and Remand Home and the Osu Children�s Home. The Shelter for Abused Children and Remand Home comprise four institutions including the Boys Remand Home, Girls Correctional Centre, Shelter for Abused Children and the La South Vocational Training Centre. According to the minister, the ministry was in the process of drawing up a new institutional framework, which would serve as a guide to its activities. The new Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) which was formerly known as the Ministry of Women and Children�s Affairs (MOWAC) was established by the President, John Dramani Mahama by Executive Instrument 1, 2013 (E1, 2013) and comprise of the Department of Gender, Department of Children and the Department of Social Protection. The mandate of the MoGCSP is to ensure gender equality through the mainstreaming of gender considerations. It is also to promote the welfare and protection of children and also empower the vulnerable, excluded, the aged and persons with disabilities by social protection interventions to contribute to national development. Nana Oye said her visit to the two institutions was to ensure that children who passed through them came out adequately prepared to face the real world. She said there was the need to link such institutions to some of the social protection programmes so that children who are given skills training could be supported to establish themselves when they come out. She also called for innovative ways to ensure that children who are put into remand or correctional centers, continue to receive formal education. At the Shelter for Abused Children and Remand Home, Nana Oye who interacted with the children and caregivers separately to know their needs at first hand said she would do her best to ensure that they were given maximum support. The Centre Manageress, Mrs Georgina Mensah who briefed the minister on some of the problems that they confront them, said the lack of day and night security personnel, makes it easy for children who are on remand to escape from the facility without notice. Lack of personnel and water shortage, she said was also a major concern to the institute. Giving a rundown of people in all the facilities she said the Boys Remand home had eight boys, the Junior Girls Correctional Centre had five girls, the Shelter for Abused Children had 23 children while the South Labone Girls Vocational Institute had 97 young girls. According to her, they manage to survive mainly due to the benevolence of donors such as the United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF) and the French Embassy which she said, had built additional facilities to accommodate some of the children. The insure the institute under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was also put before the minister who said she would look at how best to support them. At the Osu Children�s Home, Nana Oye met with the caregivers, where the Head of the Home, Ms Sharon Abbey said they had 169 children under their care ranging from day old babies to 25 years of age. She said the home was trying to find accommodation for the adults among them. She called for more staff saying that presently, the home was under staffed and also called for a psychologists to be posted there to help in psyching up the inmates. The staff in an open forum called for children with special needs who were in the home to be sent to the appropriate facilities for better care. They also called for the provision of more computers for the growing number of children and also the payment of night allowance for the staff.