Child Advocacy group, Child Rights International, Ghana has called for a system that will strictly regulate the activities of the Department of Social Welfare and also resource them with qualified personnel who put the interest of children first.
The group also wants the social welfare system in the country to be revised to make it responsive to the needs of the people.
According to the Executive Director of Child Rights International Ghana, Bright Appiah, a new social welfare system must be able to identify the gaps and challenges that encourages illegal adoption, sale and theft of babies in the country.
“The system must be very responsive to the needs of the people. What will make a doctor or a nurse put children in that condition they are in now? Or how does our social welfare system work in a manner that their officers who have been mandated to engage in certain activities will conduct themselves in a manner that will not be in the interest of the State? So clearly we have to be very responsive,” he said.
He said more competent and professional workers must be employed to handle social welfare issues in the country.
“We should get professional people to handle some of these cases. We know there are a lot of people who have completed social work from the universities, but you cannot call them social workers so there should be a system regulating their activities and also a system of making sure that we get the professional people who will do their work in a manner that will protect the interest of children.”
About eleven health workers including doctors, nurses and some social welfare staff were arrested in a joint operation by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) and the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (MDC).
The arrests are reported to have been conducted in December 2020 at the Ridge and Tema General Hospitals amongst other places after the suspects were found to be involved in the sale of babies.
