MONROVIA, December 22 (LINA)-A Child Protection Officer at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Saye Town in the Monrovia suburb of Sinkor, Bonah Bleenie, is calling on some parents whose children were rehabilitated but are still at the center to take delivery of them.
According to the Liberia News Agency, Mr. Bleenie made the call in an interview with reporters at the weekend at his Saye Town office in Monrovia.
He said some parents have deliberately refused to reunite with their own children, despite the completion of the children’s rehabilitation process at the center.
Bleenie said this refusal by parents to reunite with their children was posing a hindrance to the work of the center, because the center now has limited space to accommodate more children.
An MOU signed among the Justice Ministry, Health and Social Welfare Ministry and the non-governmental organization, Child Fund three years ago, requested the NGO to recruit, shelter, rehabilitate and train abandoned and other disadvantaged children from the streets of Monrovia, in various disciplines and later reunite them with their parents.
Bleenie explained that most of these children, whose ages range from10-18, were recruited from various ghettos in Monrovia and its environs.
He said Child Fund provides clothing and shelter for the victims, while the Justice Ministry provides the legal arm and the Ministry of Health medication for the kids.
The Child Protection Officer noted that the rehabilitation program at the center has helped to transform several children who were later reunited with their parents and are now living meaningful lives.
LINA