Ashaiman (GAR), March 4, GNA - Children between the ages of 10 and 15 years at Ashaiman are engaged in various form of child labour at the expense of their education due to parental neglect, an alternative dispute mediator has said.

"The children engage in refuse collection, carrying of goods on daily bases from houses, markets, shops and lorry stations for fee in a bid to make a living," Mr Gabriel Atsu, Mediator of the Ashaiman Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) told the Ghana News Agency in Ashaiman. Mr Atsu said some of the children undertook sand winning along the Tema-Accra motorway in addition to truck pushing and carrying of sand and mortar at construction sites in the municipality. He stated that some of the children whose parents especially, the fathers do not cater for their welfare, slept on tables at the market because they have no place of abode. The Mediator attributed the lack of child maintenance to separation of spouses, giving birth to too many children, lack of finances and maturity to cater for children, polygamous marriages and death of a spouse.

"These factors were established during mediation as the main issues militating against child maintenance by parents", he noted. He indicated that fathers were the worse culprits in lack of child maintenance, explaining that mothers usually took full responsibility of the caring and general welfare of their children, including their education.

Mr Atsu said the ADR recorded a total of 334 cases in 2007 as against 375 in 2006.

Giving the breakdown of the cases, he said the Centre handled 189 rent related cases, 94 debt recovery, 15 child neglect, 14 marital issues, 10 denial of paternity, seven land issues and five disputes over sharing of family property.

Mr Atsu said even though most of the houses in Ashaiman had no toilets and kitchen, landlords and landladies demanded three years' rent advance payments from tenants who could not afford, leading to rent cases topping the data.

On the issue of debt recovery, the ADR Mediator stated that market women at Ashaiman often grouped themselves to enable them obtain loans from financial institution. He said some of the women either used the money to pay their children's school fees or for settlement of old debts instead of investing in businesses, making it impossible for them to pay back the loans.

Commenting on land disputes, he said even though greater part of Ashaiman lands were acquired by the government, administered by the Tema Development Corporation, some individuals sold part of those lands to unsuspecting people.

Such unsuspecting buyers turn to the ADR to help them claim their monies from the sellers after their properties were demolished by the TDC or the land sold to other people. Touching on some of their challenges, Mr Atsu said the centre, which was established in 2001 to help reduce the number of cases piling at the Tema law courts, lacked an ideal office with furniture and stationary.

He said another challenge has to do with complainants' refusal of serving invitations on the respondents. Mr Atsu called for collaboration between ADR centres and the police as well as the courts. LN/KK 04 Mar 08