HRRG takes sensitization on kidnapping to Volta Region; schooled over 800 students

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana(HRRG), a non-governmental organization(NGO) committed to ensuring a society a for all without discrimination has organized a sensitization programme on kidnapping for close to nine hundred (900) students of Anlo-Afiadenyigba Junior High School students in the Volta Region on Friday May 31, 2019.

The exercise was aimed at exposing the pranks of kidnappers to the students thereby safeguarding them from falling victims.

The sensitization exercise which form part of an ongoing nationwide campaign by HRRG to impart knowledge and create awareness on preventive measures against Kidnapping, Teenage pregnancy and Tramadol Abuse in schools has so far benefited about 15 schools across the country.

The Executive Director of HRRG, Joseph Kobla Wemakor, said the organization had so far educated over 5,000 students in some parts of the Greater Accra Region and aims to reach out massively to parents, guardians and the entire public across all the regions of the Ghana which Volta Region is part.

He maintained that the organization’s objective is to serve as an advocacy institution, and a critical voice to fight for the rights of all manner of people particularly women, girls and children to ensure that those abuse get help and justice while educating the vulnerable in the society on human rights and other pertinent issues and challenges that confront them in order to empower them.

“We aim at creating a society for all without discrimination hence the need to embark on a nationwide sensitization campaign which covers the three (3) critical human rights and social issues; Kidnapping, Teenage pregnancy and Tramadol Abuse (KTT Project).”

“It is our hope that by the end of the project, students will be well informed and provided with useful tips on how to evade kidnapping, educate them on teenage pregnancy, its associated challenges and how to avoid it as well get them sensitized on tramadol abuse and its dangers to health and academic work”. “By this, we can be assured of creating a culture of human rights consciousness, by imparting knowledge and skills which will help in molding good attitude among children to guarantee that society for all”, Mr. Wemakor explained.

The HRRG Executive Director who conducted the sensitization exercise advised the students against entertaining strangers on their way to, from school or anywhere they happened to meet them. He appealed to them to study hard and eschew from social vices such as pre-marital sex and consumption of alcohol, tramadol or any form of drug abuse so they can come out of school and be useful to the society.

On his part, Headmaster of the Anlo Afiadenyigba R.C. JHS, Mr. Topha-Mills Moses lauded the efforts of HRRG for extending the sensitization exercise on kidnapping to the school which he believes has benefited the students immensely. He called on the Human Rights Group to ensure its project covers all the schools across the country to rid of the canker of kidnapping, teenage pregnancy and tramadol abuse which has gained notoriety among the youth in recent times.

Recently, kidnapping and attacks on Ghanaians and foreign nationals in the country have smacks of a cause for alarm which the Ghana Police Service has described as ‘worrying’.

The fate of the three families in the Western Region continues to hang in the balance after their relatives went missing last year.

The thorny issue has compelled President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to break his silence on the matter with a promise to deal with the canker.

The Police are yet to find the missing girls and hunt for the perpetrators, as a result has come under barrage of criticism from the public.