Residents sensitised to negative effects of early marriage
The number of teenage pregnancies recorded at the Banda-Ahenkro Health Centre in the Banda District in the Brong Ahafo Region increased from 54 in the first half of 2016 to 64 during the same period in 2017, Mr Antwi Boasiako, a nurse at the facility, has disclosed.
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Majority of the teenage pregnancies were said to have occurred due to child marriage, irresponsible parenting, poverty, ignorance, among others.
According to Mr Boasiako, the centre also recorded 13,223 cases of malaria between January and July in 2016 as against 5,612 cases during the same period in 2017, with some reported cases of tuberculosis in the area.
He disclosed these to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Brong Ahafo Regional office of the Centre for National Culture (CNC) to sensitise residents of Banda Saase to the negative effects of early marriage.
During the programme, the cultural group of the CNC used drama to educate the people on early child marriage and its negative socio-economic effects on the victims, families and communities.
Mr Boasiako said notwithstanding adolescent reproductive education programmes organised by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governmental institutions to sensitise people in the area to the negative effects of child marriage, the statistics on the situation continued to increase.
He, however, announced that for the past four years, the facility had not recorded any maternal mortality, adding that cases beyond the centre were quickly referred to the Tain District Hospital.
He called on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to support the centre with an ambulance since the centre referred most of its cases and used public transport to carry sick persons to the referral hospitals.
Child marriage
Considering the rate of teenage pregnancy and early child marriage in the area, the regional CNC, in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana, organised the programme to use drama to sensitise residents to the negative effects of child marriage at Saase-Banda.
Communities which benefited from the programme included Saase-Banda, Namasa, Brohani and Beposo in the Atebubu-Amenteng District of the region.
CNC Regional Director
The acting Brong Ahafo Regional Director of CNC, Madam Helen Sinabisi Akanbong, said the CNC existed to use culture to educate the public to enable them to improve on their lots.
According to her, the team would return to those communities to access the effective progress of the public education the CNC rendered to the people.
Victim
Thirty-six-year-old Lukaya Mohammed told the Daily Graphic that she was forced to get married at the age of 14 when she was in junior high school (JHS), and she had given birth to seven children since then.
According to her, she had regretted going into marriage early since she and her husband were currently unemployed parents catering for seven children, a situation which had made life unbearable.
Madam Lukaya vowed not to entertain early marriage in her family and advised the public to embrace the CNC’s project to help prevent adolescents from going into early marriage which could ruin their lives.
