Some of the participants at the Youth4Change forum
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Nabdam, Agnes Anamoo, has mounted a campaign aimed at fighting child marriage in her district.
She vowed to use her office to ensure that persons caught in the illegal act are prosecuted without delay.
As part of her campaign, the DCE has made it a part of every speech and also at community meetings to sensitize families to the need to allow their girls to grow properly, be educated or learn a vocation and be psychologically ready for marriage before giving out their hand.
Ms. Anamoo, speaking at a forum dubbed: “Youth4Change” organized by Youth Harvest Foundation, said statistics available ranked Nabdam among districts with high child-marriage rate.
The DCE said it was a blemish on the district’s record, for which reason she wanted families to desist from the act and the public to report offenders.
“As an assembly, we have collaborated with various traditional leaders in our communities to set laws that will punish people or parents who are involved in this practice. Yes, it is not a day’s thing, but we will make sure that that practice is eradicated from this district,” she stressed.
“Last year, on the assembly’s sensitization drive, we supported close to hundred girls with sanitary pads and educated them on personal hygiene and the reasons they must wait till they grow before marrying. This initiative will continue; I have asked the district planner to put it on our budget as one of the initiatives the assembly will be carrying out each year,” she pointed out.
Members of Youth Harvest Foundation have intensified their campaign in the district, targeting places like Sekoti, Pelungu, Kongo, Dasabligo and Nangodi, where they interact with parents and opinion leaders on how they can work collectively to end the practice of child marriage and teenage pregnancies.
According to the Project Officer, Abigail Adumoliga, the project started in 2019 when the Ghana Statistical Service revealed that its data showed that the Upper East and Northern regions led with 28 per cent in the practices of child marriage, compared to the Greater Accra Region with eight per cent.
FROM: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Nangodi