Parents urged to be responsible

The Head Pastor of the First Baptist Church at Agona Swedru, Reverend Stephen Okyere Nkum, has urged parents to demonstrate a high level of responsibility in the upkeep of their children to reduce the number of Care Homes across the country.

He said it was worrisome that some women carried babies in their wombs for months only for them to abandon such children who end up on the streets and later in Homes and stressed that the situation must be checked and controlled for the future development of children.

He therefore called on parents to make wise decisions in relation to the number of children they could cater for to reduce incidents of parental neglect.

Rev. Okyere Nkum gave the advice in an interview with the Daily Graphic after he led his congregation to donate  assorted items to the Mothercare Orphanage at Jacob near Agona Swedru.

The items, worth GH2,500, included children’s clothes, footwear, bags of rice, boxes of soap, cooking oil, napkins, spoons and bowls. The rest were crates of canned soft drinks, bread, used clothes, sugar and gari.

Advice to teenage girls

He further advised the youth, particularly teenage girls, to stay away from premarital sex since that could result in teenage pregnancies, illegal abortions and abandoned babies, most of whom were sent to Homes.

Rev. Okyere Nkum appealed to public-spirited individuals and churches to support orphanages to care for orphans.

Gratitude

Madam Joyce Obeng, the founder of the orphanage who received the items on behalf of the children, described the donation as timely and thanked the church for its support, indicating that it would go a long way in the provision of some of their basic needs.