BY CAB GROUP.
Mastermind and Cabs foundation International
– Ghana (MMI-GH), a Human Capital Development consortium, is an NGO dedicated
to developing, mentoring, equipping and training the youth in all spheres of
life in entrepreneurship, leadership, and human capital development.The organization
also aimed at transforming young people to become analytical, ethical leaders,
global icons and innovative thinkers.
It is for this reason that MMI-GH
has partnered with Cabs foundation, a Personal and Career Development
consortium has launched a ten years
development project themed AGENDA 2022.
This program is aimed at unearthing talents, raising entrepreneurs, human
capital development and orphanage aid. Over the years the organization has
organized effective entrepreneurship program in which about thirty schools
participated consisting of about 3000 students including two Universities with
the hope of extending to other part of the country.
As part of our agenda we hope to
start our main core value which is saving the street children of Ghana with our
‘SAVE THE STREET CAMPAIGN’
The foundation is dedicated to
save the street children in Ghana and equiping them in a skills development
centre in Ghana.
The mastermind international is rolling
out a compaign dubbed ‘’Save the street
campaign’’. The number of street children is worrying and all stakeholders
we believe should come on board.
On march 18, 2012 in Accra, Mr. Otu
Asiedu, Greater Accra Regional Directr of social welfare department has
disclosed that about 61,492 children in Accra are victims of ‘’streetism’’ that calls for a redoubling
of efforts to fight its menance.
Now these children plead for
money or to provide simple service for us for money; but in most cases we
refuse. Very soon, I believe they would feel too big to plead or even feel you
are the cause of their woes and resort to looting. Imaging if someone, who is
power drunk, decides to go give these people guns and machetes, the peace of
Ghana would be compromised. This means that a fly we are suppose to kill
today, if not done, would become a dragon to kill us tomorrow.
We should look at the word ‘’ PEACE’’Holistically. If you have peace
in the country without the citizens having peace of mind –because they are
displaced in ‘’STREETS’’what peace
are we talking about.
Though Mr.Otu Asiedu attributed
the increase in streetism to poverty, peer pressure, false perception of city
life and irrespnsible parenting, Stressing that research findings in the book
should be a wakeup call to agencies entrusted the responsibilty to advocate
against large family size and
Promote family planning.We
believe it is the lack of systems to control this issue.our authorities don’t
mind because they think they would escape the impact. They have forgotten their
generation would have their teeth set on edge or if that, God is in control,
and going to care.
Since our authorities don’t mind
and we don’t want posterity to judge us, we are rising up to the challenge- you
remember the message you shared on springboard in 2011?
Again, let us look at another, history
about the effect of streetism if not properly manage and taken care of.
Now Vicky, this is the history of streetism and it effects in sierra
leon and other country in between 1991 and 2002
‘’During ten years of civil war, from 1991 to 2002, the children of
Sierra Leone were deliberately and routinely targeted, and witnessed wide
spread and systematic acts of violence and abuse. The Sierra Leone Truth and
Reconciliation Commission estimated that more than
ten thousand (10,000) children were abducted as child soldiers
consisting more of street childrens
.Thousands more were victims of rape, mutilation, forced prostitution and
sexual exploitation. Among the thirty thousand (30,000) people who were
disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 were an estimated five hundred
(5000) pregnant women and young children. The military kept pregnant women
captive and subjected them to torture until the birth of their babies. The
infants were then taken from their mothers, and many were placed in the homes
of military or police officers. The mothers were never seen again. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel force
fighting the Government of Uganda, has abducted over sixty thousand (60,000)
Ugandan children of which majority were
street children and youth over the past two decades. Among the war-affected
population of northern Uganda, one in six female adolescents has been abducted
by the LRA. They have been forced to perform domestic labor and subjected to
slavery-like conditions, used for fighting and for sexual purposes.
SOURCE
:United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Adolescent Programming in Conflict and Post-
Conflict Situations (New
York: United Nations Children’s Fund, 2002), 56, available at http://
www.unicef.org/emerg/files/adolescent_conflict.pdf.
Children were among the primary victims of South Africa’s apartheid
regime. In just the two years between 1984 and 1986, three hundred (300)
children were killed by the
police, one thousand (1000) wounded, eleven (11000) thousand detained without
trial, eighteen thousand (18000) arrested on charges arising out of protest and
173,000 held awaiting trial in police cells. Children constituted between 25
percent and 46 percent of detainees at any one time during this period. During the armed conflict in El Salvador from 1980
to 1992, the military raided villages suspected of being rebel support bases.
Families were separated; the parents were often killed and the children taken
to orphanages. Some
of these children were adopted by military or police households and
others were put up for international adoption. It is believed that the military
were responsible for the disappearance of hundreds of infants and children. In today’s world the very
idea of a front line or battleground has broken down, as a result of
streetism replaced by violence
involving states, non-state actors, armed groups,
security forces, private contractors, gangs, perpetrators of terrorism
and diverse militant cells or factions. The result of this breakdown is an
increased threat to civilians, especially other children. The 1996 Graca Machel
report, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children,
together with a growing body of academic work, calls attention
to the many conflicts in which children are singled out for killings,
disappearances, unlawful recruitment, torture and other grave violations. Truth
commissions, international courts and other accountability processes have
documented how street children and
children in general have been forced or coerced to participate in
hostilities, in some cases replicating the very crimes committed against them.
Children, especially girls, have been targeted for sexual violence and rape.
Sir one thing is that, These
acts did not only violate international human rights and humanitarian law; they
are among the most reprehensible international crimes. There is considerable
momentum to end Impunity, especially for genocide, crimes against humanity and
war crimes. A comprehensive regime of international law has been established,
but implementation of these standards is lagging. For children the implications
are urgent and far-reaching. Failure to improve accountability,
provide reparation and enable reconciliation can hamper their recovery and
limit their future opportunities. Transitional justice mechanisms and processes
are attempting to better enable the promotion and protection of the rights of
children affected by armed conflict. This book is a contribution toward
documenting and encouraging these emerging efforts. It explores the questions
raised when children’s issues are prioritized in transitional justice
processes.
It analyzes practical experiences to
determine how the range of transitional justice mechanisms can be applied, both
to improve accountability for crimes perpetrated against children and to
protect the rights of children involved, primarily as victims and witnesses,
but also at times as members of armed forces and groups that perpetrate
violations. The United Nations Secretary-General has defined transitional
justice as:
‘’...the full range of processes and
mechanisms associated with a society’s attempts to come to terms with a legacy
of large-scale past abuses, in order to ensure accountability, serve justice
and achieve reconciliation. These may include both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, with differing levels of
international involvement (and none at all) and individual prosecutions,
reparations, truth-seeking, institutional reform, vetting and dismissals, or a
combination thereof. The vision and ambition of transitional justice is to
enable societies that have been torn apart by violence to recover and to
empower individuals – victims, witnesses and perpetrators – to recount their
experiences and agree on a measure of justice to inform their future. The
impact of armed conflict on children makes it imperative for transitional
justice processes to include children’s experiences, to enable their full and
protected
Participation and to improve children’s
access to justice, accountability and reconciliation
While a definitive measure of the
impact of transitional justice processes on the lives of children is not yet
available, the importance and potential of transitional justice for children
and young people is clear. Not only do children have the right to participate
in decisions and in administrative and judicial procedures that affect them,
but
SOURCE: See Piers Pigou, Chapter 4 of volume 1, “Children and the South African
Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”
See Michele Harvey-Blankenship and Rachel
Shigekanee “Disappeared Children, Genetic Tracing
and Justice.”
United Nations, Report of the Expert of the
Secretary-General, Ms. Graca Machel, Report
Meanwhile, as to some steps taken
to bring, all this to existance, 4 plots of land have been acquired and secure
in Dabala, a town in the south Tongu district a suburb in the Volta region,
which would be used for building a skills development centre to house and equip
the street children with skills to help them see the limelight of their future
hence making it a better one for them.
Further more,some steps has been
taken to raise funds for this ‘’SAVE THE STREETPROJECT’’ which would facilitate
save the ‘street children’
For this reason as a role model,
and mentor,we want you to be part of this campaign.
We want to raise funds to support
this worthy course. We don’t want Rwanda 1994, sierra leone 1992 – 2002 to repeat itself in Ghana.
We hope you would give us the
platform and also be part of this compaign.
Please,I would therefore, kindly
request that you reply swiftly or call me on
0248775736/ O249413957
We’d expecting to hear from you
swiftly.
With Kind regards
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