Prof. Opoku Onyinah (4th right) and Will Lathrop (3rd right) with others in a group photograph during the launch of the book
The International Justice Mission (IJM) has launched a Bible study material titled ‘Justice Thread’.
‘Justice Thread’ is to educate Christians on God’s heart for justice, child trafficking and how they can proactively support national efforts at protecting the poor and vulnerable from child trafficking and other forms of oppression.
The biblical study material was launched on Wednesday,
January 30, 2019, in Accra.
The Country Director of IJM, Will Lathrop, who spoke
at the event, charged civil society organisations and government to join hands in
fighting child trafficking in the country.
“If perpetrators of child trafficking are punished for their barbaric act the offence of crime will reduce drastically,” he said.
Mr. Lathrop explained that God “commands us to care for one another, why can trafficking be everywhere without anyone caring to save the victims.”
The book will support the government of Ghana to bring an end to the child trafficking on the Volta Lake.
The Deputy Director in-charge of Human Trafficking at Gender, Children & Social Protection Ministry, Abena Annobea Asare, who spoke on behalf of the minister, lauded the management of IJM for their effort to rescue the victims of child trafficking from the traffickers and giving them a promising future.
Abena Annobea expressed her shock about the life of five-year-old Isaac Mensah who was butchered by his stepmother, leaving the forearm to deteriorate beyond treatment compelling amputation.
Annobea Asare said, “Yet we are religious but nobody sees the crime to report to rescue the small boy.”
The author of the book, Osofo Kwame Matt Robbins, shared a view indicating that “justice is what we forget in Ghana and that is the difference between Ghana and the United States of America. We preach about the Bible but in the middle slavery in the castle.”
“We talk about sin, yet we are sinning. How it could be that slavery still exists at the time of churches?” he asked.
The 83-page Bible Study material was piloted in some parts of the country and endorsed by national church leaders, comprising Prof. Opoku Onyina, Rev. Dr. Fred Deegbe, Rev. Dr. Dorothy B.E.A Akoto and many others.
BY Paul Nyojah Dalafu P