COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UNIT
- INTRODUCTION
Community Development is a Unit under the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development charged with the responsibility of facilitating the enhancement of the living standards of communities in Ghana.
2.0 PROGRAMMES UNDERTAKEN FOR THE YEAR
The Unit during the quarter under review carried out a number of activities under its respective operational programmes amidst financial constraints.
2.1CHILD RIGHTS AND CHILD PROTECTION
The Unit embarked on child rights and child protection activities during the year under review. A total of number of two hundred and nine (209) students were reached out to, which comprised of one hundred and eight females (108) and one hundred and one (101) males.
Children in our Communities must be protected in their respective Homes, Schools and every area they find themselves.
The future of every minor mainly depends on the care, facilities and opportunities they get during their childhood and the need to grow up to become expected prominent citizens. The Child Protection Act,1998 (560) states that, no person shall discriminate against a Child on the grounds of gender, race, age, religion, disability, health status, custom, ethnic origin, rural or urban background, birth or other status, socio – economic status or because the child is a refugee.
The Sensitization exercise was in collaboration with National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the department.
SCHOOLS VISITED
| S/N | NAME OF SCHOOL | MALE | FEMALE | TOTAL |
| 1 | Asokore Salvation Army JHS | 25 | 27 | 52 |
| 2 | Asokore SDA JHS | 32 | 28 | 60 |
| 3 | Suhyen SDA JHS | 27 | 32 | 59 |
| 4 | Suhyen SDA JHS | 17 | 21 | 38 |
| Total | 101 | 108 | 209 |
The staff had the privilege to enlighten the pupils on the core duties of the department. To our surprise both Schools knew a bit of activities the Social Welfare and Community Development does in the Municipality.
Talk on Teenage Pregnancy was carried out. The pupils exhibited keen interest in this area. The Head teachers made us understood that both Schools lately had been recording cases of teenage pregnancies and that the department is duty bound to engage these minors in this sensitization campaign to eradicate this menace and for the children to turn a good leaf. We inquire from the pupils the causes, effects of teenage pregnancy and the safe way to prevent them.
One area both pupils in the separate schools were enlightened on was, the Social Media. The Social Media to a large extent have both negative and positive effect on the teen’s wellbeing and mental health. We touch much on the negative effects on the child upbringing and its consequence to their development. The Social media in most cases are now contributing to bad behavioral attitude on the minor and these in a nut shell is bringing depression, anxiety, loneliness and the fear of missing out in life. We harnessed on the need for the Children to learn good, educative, innovative things from the social media and to do away with bad things they picked from the social media.