CHILDREN'S PARK FOR TAMALE (Page 28)

Story: Vincent Adedze, Tamale

THE Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, has assured children in the metropolis that the assembly is liaising with some institutions to help establish a Children’s Park equipped with recreational facilities.
He said such a move would ultimately keep children away from social vices and would enable them to contribute meaningfully to the development of their respective communities.
The MCE gave the assurance at a meeting with members of the Ananse Reach Concept (ARC), a child-related movement in Tamale.
The assurance followed an appeal made to the MCE by the ARC to evolve strategies to establish a Children’s Park in the area.
Mr Adam said although the metropolitan assembly was facing such numerous challenges as a lack of funds and getting the needed site for the park, it would still do everything within its power to provide such a facility.
“It is our duty to provide such a facility to cater for the needs of children; we are negotiating for an aircraft to be sited on the proposed park,” the MCE further stated.
According to him, the provision of such a facility was long overdue, considering its benefits to children in the metropolis.
He announced that the Tamale International and Tiyumba schools would soon be linked to schools in the United States and South Africa respectively under an exchange programme.
“I am impressed with the academic delivery, discipline and community consciousness in the two schools,” Mr Adam said.
The President of the ARC, Miss Emefa Yengbe, said the Children’s Park, if provided and managed properly, “ it will serve as a physical, mental and intellectual therapeutic facility for all children in Tamale”.
“Additionally, children in Tamale would grow up as one children and eventually one people, irrespective of our ethnic backgrounds. We should not forget that the park would bring economic benefits to our people,” she pointed out.
Miss Yengbe noted that the greatest challenge facing the children was how to acquire a track of land for the proposed park.
“We, however, promise to do our best by mobilising massive and sustained funds and material resources to adequately acquire the land,” she intimated.
The president said children’s involvement in entertainment meant for adults, their engagement in tribal sentiments, discussions, factionalism and other social vices were challenges facing the children in the metropolis.
She, therefore, emphasised that the establishment of the park would help prevent children from engaging in negative acts that would ruin their future.
The Country Co-ordinator of the ARC, Madam Humu Kusum, said her outfit, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, had embarked on numerous activities to educate children on how to abstain from sex until they were married.