15 children trained on how to use the internet

Fifteen selected children from the Hohoe Municipality, Afadzato South, and South Tongu districts in the Volta region have benefited from a day training on the usage of the internet.

The training, organized by Plan International Ghana in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) was aimed at building the knowledge of young ones on the dos and don’ts of the internet space.

Volta Regional Director of Social Welfare, in charge of children, Mr. Israel Akrobotu facilitated the children in an interactive manner on cyberbullying, benefits of the internet, child online safety, and risk of using the internet wrongly.

He urged children to take advantage of the internet to learn new things that will positively influence their lives, especially to read on issues that surround their education and to stay away from using the internet wrongly.

“So we’re saying, you must only focus on the positive side of using the internet,” he said.

Mr. Akrobotu, further cautioned children who are found of using the internet to watch pornographic contents to “stop that, because that is not meant for you, you’re to use the internet to learn about topics you’re treating in school, use it to research or even learn new things that you cannot do”

The Volta Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr. Ken Kponor at the training advised the children to be “visionary” and must “be the widows of hope for the younger ones in your various communities”

He, however, urged the fifteen children to be child advocates of cyber violence against children, child protection laws, and must always “be strong when it comes to issues affecting you as children in the society.”

The children were urged to report any form of violence against their development to the appropriate authorities.

The workshop was used to induct the participants into Volta Regional Youth Advisory Board (RYAB), a board formed by Plan International Ghana with an aim of building the capacity of vulnerable children, and giving them the needed support to stand against issues affecting their development in the society, most especially the girl child and preparing them to become responsible people in the future.

The fifteen participants, most of whom are female and in Junior High School level showed enthusiasm and called for further support to enable them know what they need to know.

They, however, called on the government to give a helping hand to the organizers of the program.

Solomon Ahiable, Volta Region