By Emmanuel Gamson, GNA
Tolon (N/R), July 24, GNA – The Pan-African Organisation for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children (PAORP-VWC), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has called on parents and guardians to champion the campaign against child early and forced marriages.
Madam Mary Agiiba, Tolon District Project Officer of PAORP-VWC, said it was parents’ duties to prioritise their children’s welfare and well-being, and stressed on the need for them to join the advocacy to eradicate early childhood and forced marriages as well as child trafficking in their communities.
She made the call when her outfit engaged stakeholders to enlighten them on the existing laws and policies which protected children from forced and early marriages and also deliberate on strategies to promote child rights campaigns, in the Tolon District of the Northern Region.
The event was attended by traditional leaders, officials from the Ghana Education Service, Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Ghana Police Service, the Tolon District Assembly and other interest groups.
It was part of the PAORP-VWC’s three-year project dubbed: “Promotion of Protection against Child Trafficking and Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Northern Ghana”, being implemented in Tolon, Kumbungu, Gushegu, Zabzugu and Tatale Districts, with funding support from KiRA Germany.
Madam Agiiba noted that “parents and guardians are the ones who are to motivate their children, especially the girl child to explore their full potentials, and if they would be given out for marriage too, depends on the parents”
“So we are calling on them to join forces in their various communities to ensure that the issue of child early marriages and child trafficking are eradicated completely to help enhance the children’s development and the community as a whole,” she added.
Hajia Alima Sagito Saeed, the Executive Director for Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA), who facilitated the engagement, encouraged law enforcement agencies to rigorously enforce laws and policies which protected children from early and forced marriages.
