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Abuse Relief Corps (ARC) director Mr. Anthony Boateng Bediako advised parents to develop strong relationships with their children, especially girls, so that children can disclose their sexual relationships to them.
Speaking at a media engagement organized by ARC with the support of UNICEF, he said that one thing that encouraged the continuation of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) was the inability of children to stand up to themselves. confide in their parents during encounters of sexual harassment or abuse.
He said that poverty was a big cause of sexual and gender-based violence, as some of the perpetrators had the potential to abuse children because they provided them with financial support.
“Some teenage girls may be in a relationship with an older person who might sexually abuse them, but they can barely express it because they are their guardians,” he said.
Such situations, the director said, have made it difficult for survivors to call for justice.
He revealed that between October 2020 and January 2021, 69 cases of sexual and gender-based violence were reported of which three boys were victims.
The perpetrators, aged 17 and over, were close relatives of the victims and acquaintances of the family, he said.
A regional girl’s education officer at the Ghana Education Service, Ms. Christiana Azure Ayinzoya, said the Service sensitizes girls to know that teachers are not allowed to wrongly touch them, make them sexual comments or sexually praising them.
She called on students who were victims of sexual harassment and abuse to boldly denounce the perpetrators to the competent authorities so that the necessary measures can be taken against them.
On the part of the head of the Care Perform Initiative / Residential Homes Management Unit, Department of Social Welfare, she said it was time for victims of sexual abuse to report their encounters to the police or the Department for that the appropriate measures be taken.
Ms Abena Dufie Akonu-Atta urged parents whose children have been sexually abused not to let medical examination fees be a barrier or an excuse to prevent them from reporting cases.
She advised teachers to stop using discouraging words like “you are too stupid, never come back to my class again”, among other things on their students, as this throws their minds entirely on academics.
Sometimes the challenge the Department faced was knowing where to house the victims while seeking justice for them to ensure their safety, she said.
Ms. Akonu-Atta appealed to corporate institutions and non-governmental organizations that did not have structures used to distribute them to support these victims.
Ms Ayinzoya said the GES also discouraged the use of certain words like ‘firefighter’ instead of ‘firefighter’ to empower or encourage girls to take certain male-dominated courses and fields.
She said the GES believed that the birth of a child shouldn’t be a barrier to education, so 2,720 girls returned to school after the birth of a child between 2016 and 2017.
About 3,212 returned between 2018 and 2019 after policies were developed to allow teenage mothers to return to school, she added.
ARC is a non-governmental organization that seeks justice for abused women and children, and provides shelter to victims of abuse who no longer feel safe in their surroundings. It also offers girls self-defense training to escape situations of violence.
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