Mumford (C/R), Jan 4, GNA - The Reverend William Ofori-Atta, Apam District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, has stressed the need for the society to protect children and the youth from abuse by adults. In a sermon to climax a four-day Convention of the Church at Mumford in the Gomoa District of the Central Region, he noted that in most conflicts and civil strife, selfish adults often pushed children and the youth to the forefront to end up as scapegoats.

He stated that children ended up as the victims of rulers who wanted to perpetuate their reign and recalled the Biblical story of King Herod who killed all male infants below the age of five after the Three Wise men had informed him of the star indicating the birth of a King to get rid of Jesus.

Pastor Ofori-Atta noted that innocent children suffered most in the break up of marriages and in marital misunderstandings. He said thousands of street children were the victims of broken homes, adding that, most of them become criminals and indulge in anti-social vices through no fault of theirs.

The Pastor said, "Men are mostly to be blamed for such child neglect. Since they make women pregnant, they must be responsible for the children they bring into this world".

He advised men who were not ready to be responsible to "stop sleeping with women" and said those who had neglected their children should "go back for them" since child neglect was not only a crime but a sin as well.

Pastor Ofori-Atta cautioned women to study men who courted them carefully before committing themselves. "In the civil war in Sierra Leone the limbs of innocent children were amputated because of the lust for power of some greedy and blood thirsty politicians," he said.

Mr. Joe Hackman, MP for Gomoa West, donated 10 half pieces of wax print to the Church for distribution to old and needy women and pledged a million cedis from his share of the Common Fund for its humanitarian activities.