Baquree Inspires Ghana (BIG), a youth-led not-for-profit organization, has held a market sensitization campaign to preach the need for positive relationships between parents and children for harmonious living.
The market campaign, which took place in the Wa Central Market over the weekend, saw members and volunteers of the BIG hold one-on-one interactions with parents, guardians, and children on the importance of cordial relationships between parents or guardians and their children or wards.
Speaking at the sidelines of the campaign, Ms Fathiyat Mohammed Numbo, the Founder and Executive Director of the BIG movement, said the campaign formed part the second leg of the BIG’s flagship program dubbed “Safe Haven Initiative” which, among others, seeks to promote the welfare of children and young in their various homes.
“The whole idea behind this particular outreach is to create awareness on the significance of positive parent-child relationships and also to address the root causes of young people’s inability to access reproductive information and services,” she explained.
Ms Numbo observed that poor relationships between parents and children mostly led children and young people to rely on their peers for reproductive health information which often puts them at risks of abuse and impaired reproductive health decisions.
“In households where young people do not have good relationships with their parents, they fall on their peers and other friends for a lot of information, especially reproductive health-related information which directly puts them at risk of harm,” she said.
She, thus, indicated that the market outreach aimed at strengthening family bonds, creating safe spaces for young people to grow, and establishing assistance that would facilitate young people’s access to reproductive health information and services.
She said the market outreach also served to respond to the growing concern that “a lot of parents do not have any relationship with their kids aside providing food and money to go to school” as learned during the first leg of the Safe Haven Initiative which was led last year.
Ms Numbo emphasized that positive parent-child relationships were crucial in helping children express their opinions freely without fear of judgement or punishment, access right reproductive health information and services, and make well-informed decisions which will cumulatively enhance their quality of life.
She hinted that the BIG plans setting up a helpline in the future where young people can seek reproductive health information and services, including counseling and therapy sessions.
Mr Richard Yennunam Laarison, a volunteer with the BIG team, observed that the impact of the outreach could go a long way to enhance the overall wellbeing of children and also create a healthy society for young people to thrive.
He called on parents to keep cordial relationships with their children in ensuring they lead good lives and are free to express themselves freely regarding matters that affect their lives.
He noted that the outreach offered the BIG team an opportunity to learn from the public and that the pieces of information gathered would be used in designing future engagements that address the concerns of both parents and children.
Some parents, whom the BIG team interacted with during the outreach, expressed concerns about the defiant nature of some of children who usually turn deaf ears to any wise counsel as a cause of poor relationships between parents and children.
They, however, expressed optimism that the strategies and information received through the outreach would help in harmonizing relationships between them and their children.
The outreach was supported by Bobmillar Foundation, Tondaar Ventures, Teen Talk Ghana, Beautiful Smiles Project, Yebetumi, and Hopes, Dreams and Ideas (HDI).