Marriage before 18 years is a crime – ActionAid

Some 50 girls, who were victims of early marriages, were rescued between the period of October 2015 and December 2016, thanks to ActionAid Ghana (AAG) and community vigilantes.

The girls, who were rescued within the Upper West, East, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra Regions have all gone back to school.

Some of the survivors shared their experiences and thanked ActionAid for saving them and giving them hope.

Madam She-Vera Anzagira, the Project Co-ordinator of the ‘End Child Marriage Project-AAG’, who revealed details of the rescue to The Finder on the sidelines of AAG first-ever protest walk dubbed: ‘End Child Marriage’ called on stakeholders to support children, especially the girl-child, in acquiring at least basic education before thinking about marriage.

The walk, on the theme: ‘Below 18+ Marriage = Child Marriage’, started from Adentan Police Station and saw about 200 participants walking through Madina, Atomic Junction, Legon and Shiashie to the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout.

The walk was also to create awareness of child marriage and draw attention to all institutions mandated to protect the rights of children to heed to it.

Child Marriage currently stands at 21 per cent in Ghana with 41,000 girls marrying everyday globally. She, therefore, called for extensive public education on child marriage.

She said the call had become urgent looking at indicators that were showing high incidence in the various regions of the country.

“The prevalence is high in Upper East, leading with 37 per cent, followed by Upper West and Northern with Cape Coast and Brong Ahafo leading in southern Ghana while Accra is the least of 12 per cent,” she said.

Madam Anzagira observed that the incident was not serious in southern Ghana due to the high literacy rate and the presence of the middle class unlike the northern part where abduction was on the increase.

“The problem of high poverty, illiteracy and the lack of knowledge on the dangers of these practices have caused child marriage to be on the increase in the northern part of the country,” she said.

She said the records indicate that 700 million women were married before the age of 18, while 250 million women were married before the age of 15 with 15 million girls being married every year before their 18th birthday.

AAG, she said, had 340 girls club across Upper East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra regions where community sensitisation programmes were held frequently.

She, however, mentioned shelter, psychological and social support as some of the challenges associated with rescue efforts.

Alhaji Sani Yakubu, the Deputy Director of ActionAid Ghana, said ActionAid was implementing the End Child Marriage Campaign in 12 districts across Ghana in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

He said it was the aim of the campaign to reduce the incidence of child marriage and to promote children’s protection and well-being

Ms Abigail Baciara Bentie, Ambassador for the End Child Marrriage, called for the intensification of plans in addressing the problem adding; “there should be more education on sex, children’s rights, and life skills in the regions as they are already happening in the southern part of the country.