Yorogo (U/E), June 22, GNA- The Planned Parenthood Association Ghana (PPAG) has started a programme to educate communities in the Upper East Region on the need to stop child marriage.
The sensitization forms part of its awareness creation project dubbed ‘Child Marriage-Free Community Alert Campaign’ which is being supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under the Global Programme to End Child Marriage.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after two sensitization durbars in Yorogo and Sirigu communities, Ms Martha Atule, the Project Officer for PPAG, said the sensitization programme aimed at improving stakeholders’ awareness and alertness on child marriage.
Ms Atule said child marriage was a harmful practice that violated the human rights of the girls involved.
She said the practice affected the self-actualization of the victims and hindered the economic and developmental progress of societies.
She said stakeholders needed to reach a consensus on how to effectively fight child marriage.
As part of the awareness campaign exercise, a symbolic flag was mounted and pledge cards signed by stakeholders in both communities to affirm their readiness to end child marriage.
« The flag would be hoisted at half-mast whenever there is a new case of child marriage and this would prompt stakeholders to immediately act to annul the marriage and get justice for the victim, » Ms Atule said.
Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.
In Ghana, child marriage could be attributed to entrenched gender inequality, poverty, social norms, cultural and traditional practices and teenage pregnancy, among others.
The PPAG is expected to replicate similar activity in communities such as Dagweo, Dorogo and Sumbrungu all in the Upper East Region.