We Are Working With Law Enforcement Agencies To Curb Child Abduction In Ghana - Adwoa Safo

The Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo says her ministry is working with key law enforcement agencies to address the issue of child abduction in the country. She made this known while answering questions in Parliament on Thursday, July 29, 2021. The question was posed by Keta MP, Kwame

Dzudorli Gakpey who wanted to know what steps the Ministry was also taking to eliminate or minimize the growing incidents of the child abduction in the country. Sarah Adwoa Safo in her response said her outfit has also heightened its sensitization efforts to address the situation and have so far reached about 34,000 with its

campaign. We have, through Regional and National Child Protection Committees carried out community sensitization programmes on child protection, including abduction at the community level in partnership with the Local Government Service and Non-Governmental Organizations. So far, 34,000 people have also been

sensitized through our face to face interactions on child protection issues and 2.4 million people have also been reached on our social media platforms, she said. She added that, We are also collaborating with the key law enforcement agencies and have organized training sessions to improve prosecutions and convictions of

perpetrators. We have also launched a software called the Social Welfare Information Management Systems (SWIMS) to facilitate and enhance collaboration among relevant stakeholders at the National and Decentralized levels in the management of the Social Welfare cases, which also include child protection. The implementation

of it will also facilitate the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators. We are again in the process of amending the Children’s Act and the Juvenile Justice Act to also provide for more stringent measures. Answering a question on what the ministry was doing to addressing the rising cases of domestic violence among women

and girls, Adwoa Safo said two toll-free hotlines for the reporting of all social protection issues also including domestic violence cases. We are also carrying out the community sensitizations and at the community level against domestic violence and this is also being done in partnership with our partners, including the traditional

and opinion leaders. We have importantly set up two toll-free hotlines of hope for reporting of all the social protection issues, including domestic violence cases. The hotlines are 0800800800 and 0800900900. We also set up the BOAME APP which is also called the Orange Centre specifically for domestic violence cases. The

number is 0800111222. The lines are all fully active to receive calls to support victims and vulnerable groups. We have also renovated the domestic violence shelter where we provide accommodation, care and support to victims. Our ministry also works closely with DOVVSU for the prosecution of the perpetrators.