Bawku (U/E) June 26, GNA - Poanaba Alas-Buudi I, Queen Mother of the Bawku Traditional Area in the Upper East Region has called on government and other organizations to support the traditional area to fight girl-child abuses.
The Queen Mother noted that the increasing teenage pregnancies, Female Genital Mutilations (FGM), forced marriages, early marriage and parental neglect as well as the lack of economic empowerment opportunities for women were among obstacles impeding the progress and well-being of the girl-child in the area.
The Paramount Queen Mother, who was speaking at the end of a Queen Mothers durbar held in Bawku to find ways of ending abuses against the girl-child, said there was the need for support from government and other organizations to enable the traditional authority to embark on a massive sensitization campaign of adolescent girls, particularly those in school, to avert these obnoxious practices.
Apoanaba Alas-Buudi pointed out that girls were assets to the community and urged the people to protect them so that they could develop fully to contribute meaningfully to the development of the area.
She called for attitudinal change in people in authority against stereotyping of women and said such phenomenon limited the full potentials of women in national development.
The Paramount Queen Mother commended the Bawku Traditional Council headed by Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, Paramount Chief of Bawku Traditional Area for the immense support towards the development of women in the Bawku traditional area.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Paulina Patience Abayage, described the theme for the occasion, “The Role of Women in the Bawku Traditional Area in Development” as a wakeup call on the stakeholders to adequately support the rural woman to contribute to community development.
She noted that most decision-making positions in today’s world had been taken by men and using herself as an example, remarked that it would only take a proper education to push women up there.
Madam Abayage said women's participation in nation building was an important ingredient in achieving equitable, peaceful and prosperous society, adding that, some skeptics fear that pursuing a stronger role for women in nation building could lead to instability.
“A nation that shows greater concern for the rights of weaker citizens including women would be less likely to initiate violence” she added.
The Minister challenged the Queen Mothers and women in the area to take advantage of government policies such as the free senior high school policy to send their girls child to school to enable them to assume enviable positions as teachers, doctors, lawyers, accountants and become Ministers of state or even Presidents to help move the nation forward.
Madam Abayage commended the chiefs, Queen Mothers and the people of the Bawku traditional area for sustaining the peace and emphasized that, such peaceful and conducive atmosphere was a prerequisite for development and entice investors into the area to create jobs and employment.
GNA
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