UNICEF supports programmes to check child marriage
The Centre for Development Initiatives (CDI) and the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) are collaborating to check the menace of child marriage in the country.
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With support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), CDI is currently implementing a project dubbed “Community Empowerment Against Child Marriage” (CEACM) in 12 communities in four districts in the Greater Accra Region and 10 communities in two districts in the Upper West Region.
The two regions have been identified respectively as the destination and origin of most kayayei in the country. The districts are Sissala West and East in the Upper West Region, where most of the kayayei come from to settle in the four districts in the Greater Accra Region.
The four districts in Accra are Adentan, Madina-La Nkwantanang, Ashaiman municipalities and the Accra metropolis.
The CEACM aims at mobilising the existing formal child protection structures for increased awareness creation of the menace among other activities.
Minister’s concern
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, was worried that one out of every four girls in Ghana was married before their 18th birthday, making the country one of those with the highest child marriage prevalence rate in the world.
He was, however, happy that though the practice of child marriage was rooted in tradition and culture, neither culture nor tradition was irreversible and for that reason, there should be hope for change.
CEACM stakeholders
In a speech read on his behalf at a stakeholders’ meeting on CEACM in Accra, the minister said: “This practice affects both boys and girls though the overwhelming majority of those affected are girls.”
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of various child-related organisations and the executive members of the kayayie, was a follow-up to an earlier one, and sought to review the CEACM project, share experiences on what participants had done since the last meeting, as well as what others were still doing.
Implication of child marriage
Nii Afotey Agbo noted that child marriage tended to affect females in the society with serious implications for their health, education and social life.
“It is a fact that in many situations, these young girls who are forced into such early marriages are more likely to experience violence in their marriages. Most often, these girls become mothers at an early age and research estimates that stillbirths and infant deaths during their first week of life are 50 per cent higher among babies born to adolescent mothers than those born of mothers in their 20s,” he said.
He said the ever-increasing number of street children, particularly female head porters in the region, was an issue of concern and, therefore, commended the CDI for embarking on such a project, which he described as a step in the right direction.
A Child Protection Specialist of the UNICEF, Mrs Emelia Allan, said according to available data, child marriage was spreading to more communities, and was gradually becoming a nationwide issue.
AU expresses concern
She said the African Union (AU) maintained that it was unacceptable to continue to give out the hand of children in marriage and added that the consequence of child marriage was dire as it had health and educational implications.
The Executive Director of the CDI, Mr Alex D. Danikuu said among other things that the project sought to address child, early and forced marriage through inter-stakeholders consortium of children, parents, communities, opinion leaders, civil society organisations, ministries, municipal, metropolitan, departments and agencies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra and Upper West regions.