Aflao, May 29, GNA - A 10-day old baby girl died at Duta when a broken wall fell on her during a rainstorm in and around Aflao on Wednesday. More than 100 buildings, including eight schools have either their walls or roofs partially or totally destroyed rendering about 500 people homeless in the storm, which also uprooted several trees. Eight other people including five pupils of Victory International School at Avoeme were injured by fallen walls or flying objects. They have since been treated and discharged at health facilities here. The most affected areas are Avoeme, Sepenukope, Avakome, Viepe, Huime-Agordome, Duta and Aflagatigome.

A source close to the Victory International School said they were preparing for classes when the storm set in at about 0830 hours ripping off parts of the school's roofing. Mr Doe Kornyo, Ketu South District National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Coordinator said, his outfit was liaising with the Ketu-South District Assembly and NADMO officers to work out a relief package for the affected persons. He urged the public to complement the relief efforts. 29 May 10

Source: GNA

More parents in the North and South Tongu districts have allegedly taken to child trafficking, enticed by the resettlement packages given to those victims who were rescued from the practice.
The micro-credit support that went directly to parents and guardians of those children has become the greatest attraction.

Mr Julius Kwadzo Ameku, Chief Executive Officer, "The Fact For the Youth of the Southern Sector Organization" (FYSSO-Ghana), the NGO

spearheading the rescue of the victims made the observation at Sogakope, where he handed over 19 such children to their parents on Monday.

Other packages available to those children were basic school kits for young victims and jobs skills training for older children, he said.

He said so far 600 victims have been rescued and integrated with their families in the South and North Tongu districts in the Volta Region and

Dangme East and West districts in the Greater Accra region, in the past five years.

The Executive Director said the organization's external collaborators,

Geneva Global and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have come out with a new pilot scheme, to identify and support needy children and parents in communities engaged in the practice.

"We hope to strengthen parents to be more responsible to their children and discourage them from letting them out, as we shall be reducing the huge rescuing budget".

A total of 65 such children from the North and South Tongu Districts identified through the Social Welfare Department and the School system,

received their support packages under the pilot project launched at the function.

Mr Ameku said a community managed micro finance scheme (Banking on change) is being implemented by FYSSO in South and North Tongu,

Adaklu-Anyigbe district and the Ho Municipality, in partnership with Plan Ghana with Barclays Bank UK support, to empower women in their family life

responsibility.

Mr Moses Kakau, South Tongu District Director of Social Welfare, who launched the new anti-child trafficking pilot project, said the neglect of children was mainly the cause of many social miscreants in the country.

Mr Daniel Amelorku, South Tongu DCE chastised families who refuse to cater for their children and pledged the Assemblies support for the education of those children and all others in need.

Source: GNA

Cocoa farmers have been urged to adhere to the best practices that had over the years helped the country to maintain the quality of the cash crop.
Mr Samuel Amponsah, Deputy Ashanti Regional Manager of the Quality Control Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board, said the farmers should not allow the intense competition among the licensed buying companies (LBCs) to adversely affect standards.

Addressing a forum for farmers and cocoa purchasing clerks at Nkyesa in the Asante-Akim South District, he asked them to ensure that the beans were taken through proper fermentation.

The beans he said should be fermented for seven days and that anything short of that could have adverse effect on the colour and aroma of the produce.

Mr Amponsah also counselled against the use of children on the farms, saying they should rather be

enrolled in school to assure them of a secure and more rewarding future.

The District Manager of the Division, Mr Stephen Kwame Acheampong, cautioned purchasing clerks in the district not to buy bad cocoa beans, saying offenders would be sanctioned.

The beans bought from farmers must be properly dried, he said, explaining that it is criminal for anybody to trade in wet beans.

He urged the LBCs, which do not have depots in the district to refrain from transporting cocoa to

adjoining districts, to facilitate the determination of the annual production levels of the crop in the area.

Nana Kwame Ofori Barimah, District Chief Farmer, urged his colleague farmers to co-operate with the cocoa spraying gangs to ensure higher yield.

Source: GNA

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) circuit court has sentenced a mason apprentice to seven years imprisonment for defiling a 14-year-old house help at Atwima Nkoranza near Kumasi.Emmanuel Kwadwo Mensah, 20, pleaded not guilty.

Police Inspector Martin Asenso told the court that the victim was a house help of one of the tenants in the house where the convict also lived at Atwima Nkoranza.

He said in March last year, the convict entered the room of the victim in the evening and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.

The victim reported the matter to her mistress the following morning and when Mensah was questioned, he admitted entering the room but denied having sex with the girl.

The prosecutor said in November last year, the victim returned to her grandmother's house at Santasi in Kumasi after

maltreatment in the hands of her mistress and narrated to the grandmother how Mensah had been abusing her sexually.

The grandmother reported the matter to the queen of Santasi, who invited the victim and Mensah to her palace.

Inspector Asenso said Mensah denied having sexual intercourse with the victim but the queen not satisfied reported the matter to the police who arrested him.

Source: GNA