By Regina Benneh, GNA
Banda-Ahenkro (B/A), Oct. 19, GNA – A girl-child and women’s rights non-governmental organisation (NGO), Resource Link Foundation (RLF) has appealed to stakeholders to collaborate to end child-marriage in Brong-Ahafo particularly, and Ghana in general.
Per a national data on child-marriage gathered by UNICEF, Brong-Ahafo was ninth with 23.9 per cent as at 2014 whilst the Upper East, Upper West and Western Regions had the highest prevalence rate at that time.
But, according to the NGO, Brong-Ahafo could not continue to take pride in that achievement because the reverse is the case currently as findings and checks by women and children rights advocacy NGOs working in the Region attested that the menace has been on the increase since then to date.
Mr Christopher Dapaah, the Country Director of RLF, a Ghanaian NGO, which is a member of “Girls Not Bride Ghana” but working in partnership with ActionAid Ghana in Brong-Ahafo, made the appeal when he spoke at this year’s Brong-Ahafo Regional celebration of the International Day of the Girl-Child on Thursday at Banda-Ahenkro in the Banda District of Brong-Ahafo.
Organised and sponsored by the ActionAid Ghana on the theme, “With Her: A Skilled Girl Force, The Ending Child Marriage Factor”, the programme was attended by chiefs, women and child rights advocates, traditional and religious leaders and the general public.
The event was observed to bring together partners and stakeholders to advocate for and draw attention and investments to the most pressing needs and opportunities for girls to attain skills for employability.
Mr Dapaah stated that Ghana had been identified as one of the countries with the highest prevalence rate of child-marriage because “such harmful practice” was being recorded in some communities across the country.
He bemoaned that high rate of child-marriage combined with a rapid population growth could have devastating human and development consequences on Africa if the situation was not brought under control.
Mr Dapaah identified poverty and ignorance as some of the factors pushing parents to give their girl- children into early marriage for money to reduce their economic and social burdens.
He therefore implored stakeholders to assist in various ways to empower girls to know their values and rights and develop skills to enhance their opportunities in life to fulfil their potentials.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Setina Aboagye , the Regional Coordinator of Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, cautioned parents against the act of child-marriage, warning that “it is an offence and parents and perpetrators could be arrested, charged and the perpetrators charged with defilement and rape for prosecution in the courts”.
DSP Aboagye entreated the public to report such incidents to any nearby office of DOVVSU for immediate intervention to save girls from such dangerous practices to minimize it, if not total prevent the menace in the Society.
GNA
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