Let’s fulfil promises to children
Millions of children in Africa continue to suffer from various forms of harmful practices that tend to have devastating consequences on their life, development, health, education and protection. These include female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, bonded labour, accusations of witchcraft, and a number of lesser known practices.
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World Children's Day, otherwise known as Universal Children's Day, is a special event to honour and protect children around the world. This event was created in 1954 to protect children from working long hours,prevent them from hazardous situations in the workplace, as well as give every child the chance to be educated.
Awareness creation
The purpose of the celebration is to create awareness of the responsibilities of all members of society especially parents, private and public agencies to protect the rights and the future of children, as well as to enable members of the public to appreciate the need to uphold the rights and dignity of children in accordance with the rights accorded to them by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
According experts, problems facing children in various parts of the world differ radically.While those living in developed countries feel the negative impact of daily addiction to television and computers, their peers in Africa and Asia suffer from malnutrition, AIDS, illiteracy and armed conflicts.
The focus of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children, 2013, is on children with disability and the report says “little will change in the lives of children with disabilities until attitudes among communities, professionals, media and government begin to change.”
It said ignorance about the nature and causes of impairments, invisibility of the children themselves, serious underestimation of their potential and capacities, and other impediments to equal opportunity and treatment, all contributed to keeping children with disabilities silenced and marginalised.
Childhood illness
Immunisations are a critical components of global efforts to childhood illness and death. They are among the most successful and cost-effective of all public health interventions, with the strong potential to reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality, particularly for children under five years of age.
For this reason, immunisation has been a conerstone of national and international health initiatives and in Ghana, more children are being reached than before.
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Ghana was the first African country to introduce pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines at the same time, simultaneously tackling the leading causes of the world’s two biggest childhood killers – pneumonia and diarrhoea.
Globally, pneumonia and severe infant diarrhoea together, take the lives of more than 2.7 million children under the age of five each year. In Ghana, these two killer diseases account for approximately 20 per cent of the country’s under-five child mortality.
The importance of involving children with disabilities cannot be overstated. Prejudice be effectively reduced through interaction, and activities that bring together children with and without disabilities have been shown to foster more positive attitudes.
Discrimination and exclusion of children with disabilities render them disproportionately vulnerable to violence, neglect and abuse.
Children with disabilities who are in preschool or younger, are more likely to be abused than their peers without disabilities.
Children who may already be suffering stigma and isolation have also been shown to be more likely to suffer physical abuse.
Fulfilling rights of children
The process of fulfilling the rights of a child with a disability - including that child in community life - begins with establishing a home setting conducive to early intervention. It involves stimulation and interaction with parents and caregivers from the first days and weeks of life through the different stages of the child’s educational and recreational development.
Ensuring that children with disabilities actually enjoy their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), on a par with others, is the objective of an inclusive approach to health. This is a matter of social justice and of respecting the inherent dignity of all human beings.
In celebrating World Children's Day, we need to reflect on our childhood and make good on those promises to children.
Adults in advantageous positions need to select a programme that relates to offering sponsorship to a needy child and teach children about life in other countries.They(children), need to know that they do not have to work at the expense of their education when they are not healthy. In a nutshell, teach your children to be thankful for what they have.