The Executive Director for Divine Torch Foundation has asked parents to report rape and criminal issues to the Police and seek to settle them in chiefs’ Palaces or as a family matter.

Louisa Atta Akpoto said, “Chiefs and pastors are not the appropriate people or means of settling rape and violence-related cases because these are criminal issues which must be handled by the Police.”

Madam Akpoto was addressing a durbar as part of 16-day activism against violence against women and girls at Akplabanya, a suburb of Sege in the Ada West District, Greater Accra Region.

She told the public that her organisation aimed to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, to empower them through career guidance, counselling and skills training.

“Keep close relationships with your children especially the girls and be their best friends. When you are bathing your child, and he or she does not allow you to touch the genitals, be smart enough to detect a problem, talk to your child calmly to find out if she or he had been touched in an inappropriate way.

“If you realise that your daughter starts behaving abnormally, for example, she starts keeping to herself or suddenly changes how she walks, draw close and ask her questions and she may have something to tell you,” she told the parents.

After charging the parents to start educating their wards about sexual reproduction as early as 6 years old, she told the children that as they transit into adolescents, having sexual desires was very normal but they must exercise abstinence till properly married.

She urged them to keep their hobbies as a means of controlling themselves when their sexual libido arose and must avoid bad company.

Mr Micheal Boamah, a representative of the District Community Development Social Welfare department, asked the girls to avoid soliciting financial assistance from boys and men.

He told them to avoid isolated places, watching movies in the men’s room, attending programmes meant for adults, avoid indecent dressing, and to be safe.