Child Rights International turns attention to street children after Akuapem Poloo case

The controversial actress was sentenced to 90 days in prison by an Accra Circuit Court on Friday, April 16, 2021.

This was after she posted nude and obscene materials of herself and her young son on social media some months ago.

She pleaded guilty in court after being charged over the publication of obscene material and domestic violence.

The NGO said the court had encouraged it to continue pursuing cases of child abuse in order to uphold and protect their rights.

Executive Director of CRI, Bright Appiah, said his outfit will be going after parents who turn their children into commercial beggars.

“Once you find a child on the street, it is an abuse and there are processes stated by law in taking action in respect of that,” he told the Daily Graphic.

“The first one is people who use children to beg for alms and, for that matter, they must be prosecuted for engaging children on the street.

“Then again, there are others who are also very vulnerable and, for that matter, find themselves on the street. The law also provides a certain antidote that the state must provide and so that is one aspect that we are going to pursue.”

Mr. Appiah further stated that CRI has a report on streetism in Ghana and that its lawyers will soon come out with a demand on the state to make sure that all children were protected.

“So we will play our part and we will continue to do that. In 2019, we took action and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection came out and said that it was developing a roadmap for withdrawing children from the streets and we kept quiet but now we are going full length,” he added.