Social welfare to arrest and prosecute preachers who use sick children to beg for financial assistance

Mobile preachers who use sick children to plead for financial assistance from the public will be arrested and prosecuted, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Social Welfare Department, Patrick Nawah, has said.

According to him, this decision is to protect vulnerable children from being exploited.

He added that the Social Welfare Department has asked families with destitute children to contact them for any social challenges confronting the children.

The department noted that these preachers have taken advantage of the children’s predicament to extort money from the public.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the Social Welfare Department, Patrick Nawah, shared this information in an interview on Otec FM’s morning show ‘Nyansapo’, hosted by Captain Koda, on Thursday.

He clarified that such action is illegal and exposes the children to dangers, which is also against the children’s rights.

Patrick Nawah noted that using these children has become a way for the preachers to generate funds for themselves.

He stated that the department has handled cases where the sick children’s families and the preachers agree to share the money they get from the venture.

“The department will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute mobile preachers who parade sick children along roads to beg for financial assistance for medical treatment."

“The preachers whom we see as helping the children to amass funds to take care of the sick children's medical treatment are rather using them to extort money for themselves,” he said.