18 Communities benefit from SOS children’s programme
Vulnerable children and families need a strong social support network that acts as a safety net to effectively and sustainably respond to the situation of children and families at risk.
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There are a number of social development organisations, globally and also in the country, that work with different stakeholders to strengthen social safety nets in communities, promote the interest of vulnerable children and their families and empower families to provide quality care and protection to their children.
One of such organisations is the SOS Children’s Villages that has programmes running in Africa to support children without parental care, since the 1970s.
Support networks
SOS Children’s Villages invests heavily in developing strong local communities and support networks, and one of such support networks is a support programme by SOS Children’s Village Ghana for 18 communities in Ghana under a five-year project.
Chorkor is one of the 18 communities the SOS Children’s Village Ghana supported under the project to end early child marriage, and it has been able to reach out to 1,230 families, 5,000 children and engaged 1,102 youth in technical and vocational training to empower them to take charge of their lives.
Addressing a durbar on the theme “Eliminating Child Marriages, the role of the community” organised by the SOS Children’s Village Ghana at Chorkor in Accra last Tuesday, the National Director of SOS Children’s Village Ghana, Mr Alexander Mar Kekula, called on all stakeholders to help deal with the issue of child marriage in the Chorkor community.
According to Mr Kekula, early marriage denied a girl of her childhood, disrupted her education, increased her risk of abuse and jeopardised her future.
He underscored the need for girls to be empowered to be initiators of change and spread successes for generations to come as a way of solving early marriage.
Early child marriage
“In dealing with the problem, all stakeholders should mobilise community-based organisations and local authorities to respond to early child and forced marriages, be advocates of child right and child protection initiatives, as well as to promote girl-child education.
“Let us ensure that these girls are maintained in schools and not geared off their potential career paths,” he said.
The national director pointed out that the upsurge of child marriage could only hold back the development of women and girls, stressing that it was necessary for the traditional heads, queenmothers, opinion leaders and the community of Chorkor to take serious view of the issue and find ways of tackling early child marriage.
Commenting on the theme, the Director of Girl Child Education at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs Naa Ankrah –Lah, said it was a clarion call for all parents, religious, political and traditional leaders to demonstrate great commitment to combating all forms of cultural practices that were inimical to children and infringed on their rights and freedom.
She said these vulnerable children were not at the stage where they could lead independent lives and even think for themselves, and queried why they should be forced into marriage.
Mrs Ankrah–Lah advised parents to invest in quality education of their children in order to give them better future, adding, “I believe all the ethnic groups have their various cultural practices but early child marriage is a bad practice that we should not tolerate.”
The programme featured a drama about ending child marriage empowered by Adwensa Publication, titled “14/54”.