Aji Fatou Jammeh
Bintou Fatty, Director of Children’s Affairs at the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare said harmful practices rob children; especially the girl-child, of their childhood and future, as well as threaten their well-being within families and societies.
She said this in a recent interview with this medium at the wake of the celebration of the Day of the African Child.
Madam Fatty said her ministry is “working very hard with the communities where incidents of child abuse happen. The ministry is doing a continuous advocacy, making sure the rightful laws are in place to take care of the welfare of children into consideration.”
According to her, the ministry is currently reviewing the Children’s Act to incorporate other emerging child protection issues that were not in the Act before.
She said they intend to reduce harmful traditional practices like FGM/C by widening their scope of advocacy to ensure the message is filtered to hard-to-reach communities.
The Children Affairs Director informed that the Government of The Gambia has established shelters to protect children coming into town in search of work, or from additional dangers such as harassment, sexual abuse and even sickness from the cold and unhygienic conditions.
She called on parents, caregivers and other government agencies to be committed to children issues and always reflect on what they can do better to protect children. “We will continue to work with our partners to ensure every child is safe; that everyone is a watchdog; to report issues of child abuse. We must make sure children are protected so that no girl child experiences violation of their human rights,” she remarked.
Madame Fatty urged all stakeholders to actively support national efforts in ensuring that every child is in school and learning and, protected against traditional harmful practices by working together and increasing investments in quality education, health and social services in the country.