FOCUS ON ISSUES CONCERNING CHILDREN (SPREAD, APRIL 23, 2010)

THE media have been advised to make a more conscious effort to give more attention to issues concerning children.
During discussions between a delegation from the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) Office in Accra and the management of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), the two sides expressed the need for the media to dwell more on the positive portrayal of children than had been the practise in the past.
To that end, the two groups agreed to stimulate public interest in children’s issues and create the appropriate partnership and linkages for public discourse on those issues.
The Country Representative of UNICEF, Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, led the three-member delegation from UNICEF, while the Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Ibrahim Awal, also headed the four-member GCGL team.
Dr Haque commended Ghana for its efforts at prioritising children’s issues, pointing out that ”Ghana has a lot of credit in such areas as health, education, HIV/AIDS, children’s safety and protection”.
She was, however, quick to add that there were many areas that needed to be improved, saying that called for partnership between civil society and the government, as well as other stakeholders.
She noted that Ghanaian children had made huge progress in their development but said they continued to face various challenges such as child abuse, child exploitation and child neglect.
According to her, UNICEF had, over the years, helped in many diverse ways, including direct interventions, as well as the creation of the requisite partnerships and linkages for children’s welfare and their general development.
She commended the GCGL for using its publications, notably the Daily Graphic and the Junior Graphic, to champion children’s issues, adding that write ups on the environment, safety, health, education, child mortality and malnutrition were all children-related issues and the group must be praised for them.
Mr Awal, for his part, stated that as a corporate entity, the GCGL recognised its role in highlighting children’s issues as highly important. The company also heavily subsidised the cover price of the Junior Graphic to enable as many children as possible to acquire it.
He welcomed Dr Haque’s call for partnership between the two organisations and asked Mr Ransford Tetteh, the Editor of the Daily Graphic, and Mrs Mavis Kitcher, the Editor of the Junior Graphic, who were both at the meeting, to liaise with the UNICEF office to work out the modalities for fruitful collaboration.
Mrs Kitcher said it had always been the duty of the paper to constantly give prominence to issues affecting children and, therefore, welcomed any collaboration from an international body such as UNICEF.
She said apart from motivating children to read, it was also the objective of the paper to engage them positively to understand and appreciate pertinent issues that worked against their overall development.
The other members of the UNICEF delegation were Mr Rene Van Dongen, the Deputy Representative, and Madam Evelyn Offeibea Baddoo, the Communications Officer, while Mr Albert Sam, the Public Affairs Manager of the GCGL, was the other member of the GCGL team.