Pupils in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo region are served a local beer popularly known as pito as their daily breakfast.
Pito is a type of beer made from fermented millet or sorghum in northern Ghana, parts of Nigeria, and other parts of West Africa. The alcohol content is not as strong as the normal beer.
Children as young as five years are spotted in the mornings with their bottle of pito heading to school, a scene that has been confirmed by most taxi drivers in the region. Aprakukrom, Fawotrikosie, Abronye and Bofourkrom are the main communities engaged in such activities.
The issue came to light during this year’s celebration of the International Human Rights Day organised by a Sunyani-based NGO, Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF) at Aprakukrom.
According to some of the parents, they do not see anything wrong with their children taking pito as their breakfast because that is what they could afford since the local beer is easy to come by in their various homes.
During the forum, majority of the women blamed their husbands for doing very little to support the up keep of their children as they only invest their income in hard liquor and concubines at the expense of the children’s future.
The women called on authorities to check men of such disgraceful character. The few men, who were present at the programme, expressed their displeasure over the development and fled the meeting unceremoniously.
They said it was a deliberate attempt by the organisers to embarrass them in the presence of their wives, which they said was against their tradition.
The Chief Executive Officer of GLOMEF, Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jnr. encouraged the men in the community to support their wives to give their children quality education.
He said the challenges the women have revealed should not lead to quarrels at home which could lead to divorce.
By Michael Sarpong Mfum/Citifmonline. com
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