Dr Joseph Abaiku Apprey, Principal of Kumasi Technical Institute has advised parents to focus on the proper moral training of their children in addition to providing them with food, shelter and clothing.

He said it was unfortunate that the sole attention of many parents was to acquire money in order to take care of their children, but without any moral training many children would lose their way.

Dr Apprey said this when speaking at an awards presentation by an Accra-based NGO, Global Center for Transformational Leadership, to 21 selected adopters, single and fostered parents drawn for Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti and the Brong Ahafo regions.

The programme, held at the auditorium of Sunyani Polytechnic was under the theme, “Unique Parent Award Ceremony”.

Dr Apprey challenged parents to offer their children the right training that would help them grow to become responsible adults saying, though some parents were faced with acute poverty, that did not give them the licence to allow their children to grow up in an irresponsible manner.

Nana Kyere Acheamfour, Chief of Nkwabeng in Sunyani, who spoke on “curbing the trend of streetism among the youth towards national development”, noted that most children who lived in the streets were the youth who should be gainfully employed to increase productivity.

“Street children are predisposed to committing various crimes. Therefore streetism must be curbed or reduced to the barest minimum, if we hope to experience crime reduction in the country”, he said.

Nana Kyere said another important step that could be taken towards curbing streetism, was for the Department of Social Welfare to identify and register all people who lived in the streets saying “in this way the street people can be directly dealt with and resources can be made available for the rehabilitation of such registered people in their hometowns”.

Evangelist David Anor Sakyi of Joecare Counseling Services in Sunyani, appealed to Ghanaians to forgive each other, saying “forgiveness is an instrument of peace towards national development”.

He noted with regret the trading of insults by politicians against opponents all in the quest to win power, and asked if they would use such power to serve the people or to amass wealth.

Bishop Comfort Adu, Vice President of Global center for Transformational Leadership, said the organisation offered a platform for individuals to attain leadership skills.

She appealed to Ghanaians to lead lives devoid of insults and intimidation “and rather encourage our neighbours in their struggle to attain their aims and objectives in life”.

Very Reverend Ellen Dua-Agyemang, representative of the NGO in Brong Ahafo, implored Ghanaians to seek real peace “in this era of ethnic, religious and political agitations, so we can have the real platform to develop our country”.

Dr Jacob Abebrese, medical director of the regional hospital in Sunyani who presided over the function, noted that single parenting could have adverse effect on the national development process.

Nana Abenaa Boatemaa, President of Queenmothers Association of Brong Ahafo and an honoured foster parent, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency reiterated the responsibility of parents to train and discipline their children in a proper way.

She said this would enable the children to have confidence in themselves and to be independent in solving issues.**