Child marriages in some parts of the country, especially Northern Ghana, according to World Vision International (WVI), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), pose a threat to national growth.
It said that the activity harmed young girls’ development and deprived the country of active youth who could contribute to national development.
Mr Timothy Akanpabadai, the WVI’s Northern Regional Operations Manager, was speaking at the Savannah Regional Dialogue on the “Stop Child Marriage Now Campaign” at Damongo on the topic of “Combating Teenage Pregnancy to End Child Marriage Now.”
Traditional and religious figures, Queen mothers, law enforcement officers, and lawmakers attended the debate, which was coordinated by the WVI in collaboration with the Savanna Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH).
It was designed to allow participants to explore and decide the positions that each organization may play in helping to protect young girls and fight child marriage in certain countries.
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Mr Akanpabadai said that child marriage stifled young girls’ aspirations and prevented them from realizing their full potential, as well as contributing to poverty among families who gave their girl child away for marriage.
“We conducted a survey in some areas of the Northern Region and found that about 59% of young girls polled said they did not feel comfortable in their societies because they were afraid of being given out for marriage, and 24% of parents still feel compelled to offer out their girl child for marriage, which is quite concerning.”
As a result, he called for a concerted effort from all parties to bring in place steps to shield girls from the social blight.
The discussion was initiated by Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director of SWIDA-GH, who urged traditional rulers to be champions for girl child empowerment in their societies.
“Our traditional leaders must champion the education of our young girls by ensuring that they are taught or provided soft skills training so that we can attain the desirable outcomes by seeing competent women in our society.”
The movement, according to Madam Barbara Asare Yeboah, National Coordinator of the WVI’s “End Child Marriage Now Campaign,” aims to minimize child marriages by 5% in Ghana through a series of rolled-out programs that target key players such as traditional and religious leaders, young people, and NGOs to achieve defined goals.
She explained that the initiative sought to influence national legislation to shield children from trafficking, as well as organize young people to inspire and develop their capacities to be leading activists against child marriage in their societies.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr. Saeed Muhazu Jibril, Savannah Regional Minister, praised WVI and its collaborators for coordinating the event and encouraged participants to share the experience they had gained with other representatives of their groups in order to affect behavior improvement and further achieve the desired outcomes.
Participants at the conference took turns pledging their dedication to ending child marriage in order to help their neighborhoods grow more quickly.
SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
