Don't force teenage girls into marriages — E/R CNC boss advises parents
The cultural troupe of the Eastern Regional Centre for National Culture (CNC) has put up cultural performances to drum home the negative effects of child marriages in some communities within three districts and municipalities in the region.
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The communities are Mukyia, Adwafo, Asuboa, Yaw Nkran and Nyamebekyere in the Akyemansa District, Sekesua, Bormese Ternya, Mensah Dawa, Akokoma Sisi and Anyaboni, all in the Upper Manya Krobo District, Kpong, Nuaso, Kodjonya, Asitey and Agormanya in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality.
An initiative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the CNC, it was aimed at helping to reduce or end child marriages in the areas and the region at large.
The cultural performances took the form of a drama during which they portrayed numerous bad aspects of child marriages for parents to understand.
The bad traits include children bringing forth children, school dropout, bleak future of children from teenage mothers, protracted labour with complications and general economic hardships for the teenager and their parents.
Addressing the beneficiary communities in separate interventions, the Eastern Regional Director of the CNC, Dorcas Salamatu Alhassan said it was a violation of the rights of teenage girls to be forced into marriage.
Mrs Alhassan said because the girls were very young, they faced many challenges which did not augur well for their proper development and that of their children.
She stated that if parents continued to offer such teenage girls for marriage, the girls should be bold enough to report to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) because their future was at stake.
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She advised parents to take care of their girl- child who became pregnant through waywardness to deliver their babies after which they should allow them to continue with their education to enable them to fully grow to adulthood before they marry, Mrs Alhassan stated.
"Let's fight the canker of child marriages in the region to give our teenage girls a chance to climb the higher academic ladder to make their future bright", the regional director told parents and guardians.
For his part, the Gyaasehene of Adwafo, Nana Gyimah Ankoana, who was not happy about how some parents were forced to marry their teenage girls off, said the programme had benefited them so much.
He said it was, therefore, imperative for parents to do away with the marriages of their teenage girls and rather take good care of their education to make them useful citizens in future.
Nana Ankoana called on chiefs in the various towns and communities, as well as traditional areas in the region to say no to child marriages so that together the menace would end.
Writer's email haruna.wunpini@graphic.com.gh