The department in collaboration with AG Care organized a two-day training workshop for parents on strategies for promoting and protecting the rights of children for selected opinion leaders, parents and teachers of program schools at the fore court of their office. The training started on 15th to 16th September, 2022.
Participants were brought from operational communities of AG Care namely; Taali, Dakpam, Kpabi and Pussiga for the training workshop.
Participants were taken through;
all forms of child abuse and exploitation.
rights and responsibilities of the child
duties of parents
positive parent-child relationship.
the new trends and better upbringing of children.
The training highlighted the role of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development to participants. The Department role is to provide care, protection and support for the vulnerable group in society. The vulnerable group includes; children, women, Persons with disability (PWDs), the aged, and the poor.
The training further highlighted the duties of Parents and again stakeholders were made to understand that in as much as parents must play their duties to ensure the protection, care, support, growth, survival and development of their children, the children also have responsibilities to render to their parents.
Duties of parents;
ensure that every child has the right to life, food, clothing, shelter, dignity, respect, leisure (play), recreational facilities, health and education.
Protect the child from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Provide the child with good guidance, care, assistance and maintenance.
The child has responsibility to;
Obey parental guidance and directives.
Be honest, respectful and vigilant.
Respect the rights of others.
Protect themselves against danger/sickness.
Study to become productive in future.
TRAINING OBJECTIVES
The training focused on the following three objectives;
To equip participants with the capacity to protect children from all forms of harm and exploitation.
To educate participants on ways of promoting positive parent-child relationship.
To introduce to participants, the new trends of activities that parents should know for better upbringing of children.
TO EQUIP PARTICIPANTS WITH THE CAPACITY TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM ALL FORMS OF HARM AND EXPLOITATION.
Participants or stakeholders at the training meeting were taking through how to protect their children from all forms of harm and exploitation. The facilitation highlighted and throw more light on the first objective of the training with practical examples that, even though, children can be allowed to do light work, they should not be allowed to do Hazardous work such as;
1. Going to sea/rivers on boats or canoes for fishing.
2. Mining, quarrying and burning of charcoal.
3. Carriage of heavy loads.
4. Manufacturing industries where chemicals are produced or used.
5. Work in places where machines are used.
6. Work in places such as bars, hotels and places of entertainment where a person may be exposed to immoral behavior.
Child exploitation
Participants were also taking through child exploitative issues as follows;
Exploitative Labor: Labor is Exploitative of a child if it deprives the child of their health, education or development. The test for exploitative labor therefore is not only
about how strenuous the nature of the work is but its effect on the child.
Night Work means any work that engages the child between the hours of 8’o’clock in the evening to 6’o’clock in the morning.
Child marriage (giving a child below the age of 18 or at 18 but schooling).
Child trafficking (giving the child out to work in exchange of money or kind).
Child sexual exploitation (collecting gifts from men, pornographic exposure to children to push them into such acts).
The roles of parents in disciplining the child in order not to harm the child
As part of the capacity to protect children from all forms of harm and exploitation, the training emphasized that, discipline is the best way to correct the child and not punishment. Discipline is different from punishment. To punish is to cause pain usually physically. To discipline means to instruct or to teach or to train or to give knowledge. Discipline, therefore includes techniques parents must adopt to teach desirable behaviour.
Participants were therefore informed that, it is important to find a nice way of disciplining a child in order to correct them and must not discipline a child when they are highly angry or annoyed. Do not use inflicting of pains on the child as a means of disciplining. Do not deny the child life necessity (food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare, etc) as a way of discipline, that practice by some parents is wrong and must stop and embraced the new trends of up-bringing of children to promote their survival, growth and development into responsible adulthood.
Effective parental discipline for the child
Develop a loving parent-child relationship
Adopt positive enforcement to promote good behavior
Develop strategies to eliminate undesirable behavior
TO EDUCATE PARTICIPANTS ON WAYS OF PROMOTING POSITIVE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP.
In order to promote positive parent-child relationship, participants during the training were taking through the following measures and were passionately advised to adhere to the procedures as follows;
Show your love
Human touch and loving affection are needed at every stage of our lives for healthy emotional development. It is important that your children receive gentle, loving care from their parents daily to aid in their growth and development.
Say ‘’I love you’’ often
As parents we should often tell our children we love them, no matter the circumstances. Even if our children do something we don’t like; this can be an opportunity to remind them you love them. A simple love and you can have a major impact on your long-term relationship with your child.
Set boundaries, rules, and consequences
Children need structure and guidance as they grow and learn about the world around them. Talk to your children about what you expect of them and make sure they understand, practice and embrace your rules for their self-development.
Listen and empathize
Acknowledge your children feelings, show them you understand, and reassure them that you are there to help with whatever they need.
Play Together
Play is so important to child’s development. It a tool through which children develop language skills, foster creativity and learn about social skills. Also, it a fun way to strengthen your relationship with your child.
Be available and distraction free
Setting aside just 5-10 minutes a day to talk to your child, without destructions, can make a big difference in establishing good communication habits. Kindly turn off your TV, Radio, and spend quality time together.
Eat meals together
Eating together as a family can often lead to great conversation and bonding time with your children.
Create parent-child rituals
If you have more than one child, try to make a point of spending individual time with each of them. Quality one-on-one time with your children can strengthen the parent-child bond, builds up your child’s self-esteem, and let them know they are special and valued.
TO INTRODUCE TO PARTICIPANTS, THE NEW TRENDS OF ACTIVITIES THAT PARENTS SHOULD KNOW FOR BETTER UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN.
The trainings further touched on the new trends of activities that parents should know for better upbringing of children. Participants were informed that apart from the basic roles of providing care for the children, children tend to do well when their parents adhered to the following trends of activities that promote better upbringing of children in our communities;
warm and engaged your children in conversation.
sensitive and responsive to the needs of your children.
able to help your children understand and cope with emotions.
able to monitor your children.
maintain age appropriate expectations for your children.
set and enforce reasonable limits for your children.
support the development of healthy autonomy of your children.
use consistent discipline and not punishment.
Your child needs the provisions of your; physical care, emotional care, loving discipline, friendly relationship, presence, guidance, corrections, and protections for survival, growth and development into a responsible adulthood.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following are recommended for further action from AG Care;
The need to organize training programme or sensitization on early child marriages for all partner stakeholders and communities.
The need to organized training programme or sensitization on teenage pregnancies for all partner stakeholders and communities.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, AG Care, Bimbilla, did a good job by organizing this important training programme for all stakeholders in their partner communities. The training programme was successfully carried out by the facilitator from the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, Nanumba North Municipal Assembly, Bimbilla.
Invited stakeholders played a key role in the training by way of questioning for more clarifications and contributions.