A Ghanaian Comboni Priest working in the Archdiocese of Ghana’s Capital City of Accra, has expressed worry about how some parents use or allow their children to beg for money on the streets and other places.
Describing the situation as “child slavery,” Rev. Fr. Evans Kotoku, MCCJ, said forcing innocent children to beg for money on the streets is an unacceptable act, and advised parents to desist from using their children to beg and teaching them how to exploit.
Preaching the homily at the Our Lady of Assumption (OLA) Catholic Church at New Achimota on Sunday September 18, he, however, stated that, sometimes “it is very worrying to see children begging on the streets,” instead of being taught how to know God and get closer to Him.
The OLA Parish begun its celebration of 40th Anniversary with a launch on August 21, 2022. A series of spiritual, health and social activities have been earmarked for the year-long Ruby Jubilee celebration.
The OLA Parish started on Monday, August 15, 1983, the Solemnity of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by a group of Catholics. The first Mass was celebrated by Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Tetteh Addy. The Parish is being manned by the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus for the past 21 years (2001-2022).
In Ghana, begging and child labour are illegal. Under the Beggars and Destitutes Act 1969 (NLCD 392), section 2(1) provides that any person found begging and any person wandering or placing himself in any premises or place for the purpose of begging may be arrested by a police officer without warrant and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty new cedis or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both.
Section 2(2) provides that a person shall not be deemed to be begging by reason only of soliciting or receiving alms in accordance with a religious custom or the custom of a community or for a public charitable purpose or organised entertainment.
Section 2(3) provides that the offence shall not apply to a juvenile, nor to a collector duly authorised under the provisions of the Public Collections Act, 1961 (Act 59) or to any collection or person to which or to whom section 5 of that Act applies.
For the purposes of NLCD 392, section 12 defines “juvenile” as a person under the age of seventeen years. The result is that although most children would not be held criminally responsible for begging, seventeen-year-old individuals can be criminalised.
Under The Children’s Act 1988 (Act 560), section 18(g) states that a child is in need of care and protection if the child is begging or receiving alms, whether or not there is any pretence of singing, playing, performing, offering anything for sale or otherwise, or is found in any street, premises or place for the purpose of begging or receiving alms.
Section 19 requires the Social Welfare and Community Development Department of a District Assembly to investigate if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is in need of care and protection, to direct the matter to a Child Panel or remove the child to a place of safety for not more than seven days and the child’s case must be brought before a Family Tribunal before the expiry of that period for an order to be made about the child’s welfare and protection.
Fr. Kotoku, however, encouraged those who have been blessed by God with wealth to extend their generosities and charity to the less privileged in society including children so that their parents won’t use them to beg on the streets and other places which is against the law.
He advised them to use their wealth wisely and judiciously, adding, “When you want to invest, invest in the poor.”
Dilating on the exploitation of people by elected leaders, Fr. Kotoku, who is the Formator of the Good Shepherd Postulancy of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus at New Achimota, Accra, lamented how the elderly, the poor and the marginalised in society queue in the scorching sun to elect leaders who later turn around to exploit them and render them poorer and vulnerable.
“If today you elect an angel as President, things won’t still change because of the system, the team that works with the elected leader and how the poor and needy are continuously exploited by the elect,” he pointed out.
He urged Christians to pray for their leaders to always think about the plight of the poor who voted them into power and also prayed that elected and corporate leaders at different levels would lead their subjects in peace devoid of exploitation.
The Comboni Priest was hopeful that with the trust in the Lord who put them in leadership positions, leaders would appreciate that they are elected to be servants to the people entrusted to them than to expect to be served.
By Damian Avevor
