By our correspondent
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] three-day Capacity Building and Stakeholders’ Engagement on Alternative Child Care has been kick started in Abeokuta by the Ogun State government. Governor Ibikunle Amosun was represented at the opening ceremony by the Hon. Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Abiola Kufile-Okonji.Speaking on the occasion, Governor Ibikunle Amosun harped on the desirability and the thrust of the theme: “No Child Should Grow Up Alone” as a panacea for social development in Nigeria and Africa.
“The risk of growing up as a child in sub-Saharan Africa is ten times higher than any other continent of the world. Apart from the damaging effect of poverty, more children are likely to die before attaining the age of five. Compounding these issues is the growing number of children who have lost parental care or at the risk of losing parental care and who have to care for themselves as children,” Governor Amosun said.
The governor gave the assurance that his government would not be derailed in its efforts at ensuring that every child who has lost or is about to lose parental care in the state is adequately cared for.
Mr. Alan Kikuchi-White, representative of SOS Children’s Villages to the United Nations in Geneva while making his presentation via virtual technology live from Geneva said the only way the world can extricate itself from damnation is to ensure that ‘no child grows up alone.’
“Government must legislate or review the existing child right laws globally to the extent of criminalizing child abandonment as much as providing the basic needs for all,” he said.
National Director, SOS Children’s Village Nigeria, Mr. Eghosa Erhumwunse said time was of the essence, we act in the interest of the child. “It’s in the enlightened self-interest of the global governments and the civil society to urgently push for the enactment of realistic legislations to remove the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) from the streets or they take us into the streets.” he said.
