Can a woman’s tender care cease towards the child she bears? Yes, she may be forgetful!
A mother’s love is often deemed the most unwavering force, yet even the most innate instincts can be overshadowed by hardship, neglect, or systemic failure.
In Ghana, the absence of a robust social welfare framework for children has left many vulnerable to poverty, abuse, and neglect; betrayed not by their parents but by the very structures meant to safeguard their well-being.
Healthcare is bad to say the least. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), intended to provide affordable healthcare, often fails children from low-income families due to delays in service delivery, lack of essential drugs, and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Children living with disabilities or chronic illnesses receive even less attention, with limited specialized care available. A mother puts her 14-year-old son with cerebral on a back, takes public transport, comes to the hospital, and waits in a queue for review. The hospital, the public transport are all no access friendly.
The streets of Accra, Kumasi, and other urban centers tell the starkest story. The growing number of street children, many abandoned, trafficked, or forced into survival on their own. This exposes the deep cracks in the nation’s safety net.
Without intervention, they become easy prey for abuse, drugs, and crime, their childhood lost to the indifference of a system that looks but does not see.
Can a nation’s tender care cease towards the child it bears? It should not. Yet, Ghana’s children remain among the most vulnerable, not for lack of policy but for lack of will and action.
If the future of any country lies in its children, then Ghana’s future is at risk unless deliberate efforts are made to reform, fund, and enforce a social welfare system that truly prioritizes the child.
The Ghanaian child has a long way to go. Their advocates- an even a longer way.
Reflecting on one of my favorite hymns.
“Can a woman’s tender care
Cease towards the child she bears
Yes! She may forgetful be
Yet will I remember thee.”
Emmanuella “Ella” Amoako
Paediatric Oncologist
Cape Coast Teaching Hospital
Member, Paediatric Society of Ghana