Baci leads campaign to end child marriage
Winner of Ghana’s Most Beautiful 2014 pageant, Bentie Abigail Baciara (aka Baci) has embarked on the next stage of her campaign to eradicate child marriage in Ghana with a symposium for girls in Wa in the Upper West Region last Monday.
Advertisement
The symposium, organised by Plan International, also coincided with the International Day of the Girl-Child aimed at empowering female children in the Upper West Region to say no to child and forced marriages in order to build self-confidence through education.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Baci said, “we must strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We envision a world that values girls, promotes their rights and ends injustice.
“ This year’s celebration aims to transform power relations so that girls everywhere learn, lead, decide and thrive with freedom.”
She said women in the Upper West Region faced many gender-based challenges which needed the collective involvement of all in society to eradicate.
“Girls and young women continue to be discriminated against at every level in political, social and economic life of the Upper West Region.
“ Male violence against women and girls, victim-blaming, sexual harassment in the streets and in the workplace, lack of representation, and unequal pay constitute just some of the continued injustices girls face in our region,” she said.
The Project Manager for Plan International Ghana, Wa, Mr Eric Ayaba said Baci was selected to speak to the girls at the symposium due to her position as a former beauty queen, role model, motivator and someone the girls could aspire to be.
