Barima Akwasi Amankwah, the National Coordinator of the Ghana NGO coalition on the Rights of the Child, has said the continual engagement of children under 18 years in hazardous labour can hamper their development.

He said a child labourer barely has time to learn due to incessant stress and tiredness and may lose interest in education or even learn a trade and thereby perpetuate the cycle of poverty among communities.

“This is why we need to create more awareness on this subject to ensure that parents, caregivers and guardians do not unnecessarily overburden their children”, he said.

Barima Amankwah, who was facilitating a day’s training workshop for selected media personnel on child labour issues, urged the media participants to set the right agenda by talking or writing more on the subject to raise the needed attention to the issue.

The workshop, coordinated by the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child, was sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Ghana office.

Barima Amankwah said securing the future of the country demanded that more children are protected and assisted to reach their fullest potential in order to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.

The participants were taken through topics such as: who is a Child and the CFWP definition, clarification of child labour concepts and statistics, and the various forms of abuse.