Stop Neglecting Your Children After Marital Breakdowns ...Ambassador Cautions Parents
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
“Hiding behind martial breakdowns to neglect children is a reckless show of abject irresponsibility by parents, the Head of Volunteers and Commissioner in Ghana of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC),” Ambassador Bernard Kofi Bonaparte, has stated.
According to him, such a practice by parents exposes their children to a lack of guidance and proper formal education, thereby depriving the children’s chances of unleashing their potential.
Ambassador Bonaparte, who doubles as the Founder of the Bonabear Foundation Ghana and a Global was addressing the gathering at the event organized by his organization which fetes about 1,100 people in Atiwa West Municipality, Eastern on recently.
Additionally, he also donated educational materials to especially school-going children and second-hand clothes to the adult beneficiaries.
The donation was part of the Bonabear Foundation Ghana initiative under the auspices of the Special Monitoring Mission of the International Human Rights Commission-Ghana in partnership with Dueduah-1 Hotel, Awanare, a predominantly cocoa farming community in Atiwa West Municipality.
Ambassador Bonarparte reiterated that Christmas was a day for sober reflection on how well or otherwise the events of the past had been and strategizing for a better tomorrow.
He said the Universal Declaration of Children's rights as stated in Ghana's Act 560 stresses the need to guide the child to live his or her full potential.
He admonished, therefore, parents not to hide behind what he termed as curtains of marital breakdowns and divorces to neglect their parental responsibilities towards their own children, adding that that would not only amount to irresponsibility but rather the suppression of their children's potentials.
His statement follows the continuous incidences of forceful subjecting minors to child labor and early marriages, particularly in rural communities.
Averting the trend, he noted, would not aid children to live their full potentials and enjoy the fundamental human rights that they are entitled to.
He advised that every decision taken in relation to the child ought to be in the best interest of the child, hence the need to involve children at some point in the decision-making process.
The annual event was graced by traditional leaders within the area.
For his part, the Chief Inspector of Police of Kwabeng Municipal Police Station, George Anning, cautioned parents to desist from the practice of engaging their wards in what he referred to as force and hard labor with the aim of making them support their farming activities.
In the end, however, he urged parents to identify interest areas of their wards and help them to develop the same.
"Even if your child has an interest in agriculture, encourage him or her to first train in a formal education and apply the acquired knowledge in agriculture, that way he or she would learn modern ways to engage in their interest area," he urged.
