UE Media urged to help stop child marriage

Media Practitioners in the Upper East Region have been urged to help end early and forced marriages in the region.

Statistics indicate that while Ghana records 25 per cent of child marriages nationwide, the Upper East Region has the highest percentage of 50 per cent of girls getting married before they turn 18 years.

The call was made at a day's training programme on early marriages, organized by the Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment-Ghana (RISE-Ghana), an NGO with sponsorship package from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives.

It was aimed at empowering and encouraging the media practitioners to report on issues regarding early and forced marriages.

Speaking at the forum, Mr Harisu Laminu, Programme Assistant of RISE-Ghana, stressed that because of the magnitude of the problem, RISE-Ghana was implementing a project dubbed: “Creating Enabling Environment for Prevention of Child Early Marriages (CEFM) and Increased Participation of Women in Governance,” in the Upper East Region.

He noted that the Media was very critical in fighting the menace, and entreated the practitioners to use their platforms more to help end the problem in the region.

Mr Awal Ahmed, Resource Mobilization Adviser of RISE-Ghana, took the media practitioners through the legal framework that abhorred the phenomenon, and attributed the menace to strong socio- cultural practices, poverty and conflicts, among others.

He explained that apart from early and forced marriages, robbing the girls of the opportunity to be psychologically, emotionally and financially ready for the responsibility of marriages and childbearing, it perpetuated a vicious cycle of poverty, hampered education and caused high risk of malnutrition and other health hazards related to pregnancy.

Mr Ahmed stated that one of the factors that accounted for child and forced marriages was the lack of enforcement of the provision of the law, saying that apart from the fact that Ghana had a legal framework and constitution that frowned upon early child and forced marriages, it was among the first countries to rectify the Conventions such as the Child Rights , the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which all speak against all forms of abuse including harmful traditional cultural practices and grant free expression.

He impressed upon the media practitioners to embark upon sensitization programmes to educate communities about the legal provision of the law against the phenomenon, as well as advocate for government to allocate a reasonable budget to the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection and the Department of Social Welfare to help tackle the problem.