UER: 178 Teachers and Health workers Trained in Child Protection NBD

 

   The Acting Manager Catholic Education of Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese Rev Sister Bernardine Pemi

About One hundred and 78 teachers drawn from 356 Catholic Schools, from the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese (NBD), have been given a three-day training workshop on Child Protection and Vulnerable Adults.

 

The workshop which was participated by ten health workers from Catholic Health Centres was organized by the Diocese with sponsorship from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) This was disclosed by the Acting Regional Manager of Catholic Educational Unit, Rev. Sister Bernadine Permi, in an interview with GBCURARADIO.COM in Bolgatanga, on the side-lines of the efforts being made by the Catholic Church to promote safeguarding and child protection within our schools and communities.

 

She said the aim of the workshop was to train each teacher per school as a safeguarding representative in that particular school which will a point of contact for a child or vulnerable adult.

 

She added that, in case of anything within the school, a report must first be reported to the representative in the school before it gets to the child protection team and finally to the child unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

 

Rev Permi indicated that the participants were taken through the concrete steps of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, shared real stories they encountered in their various schools and communities.

 

Some of the participants also expressed their joy at the things they learnt from the workshop and lauded the Diocese for organizing such an insightful programme for them.

 

The General Manager of the Catholic Educational Unit, Araba Bentum, who was present at the workshop expressed joy that it was full of insight and charged teachers to take care of children entrusted to them in their various schools both Catholic and non-Catholic schools and as well spread what they have learnt to all stakeholders so as to create the awareness that, “children are to be seen and not heard is a thing of the past”.  She added that corporal punishment should also be avoided in training our children both in schools and at home.

 

The General Manager advised parents to try and provide for the needs of their children and the vulnerable so that they will not fall into temptation, for the child protection and safeguarding the Vulnerable Adults starts from the home.

 

Mrs Bentum recommended that the training workshop be replicated in all the dioceses across the country, she concluded.