Queenmothers pledge support to end child marriages
Queenmothers selected from all the 10 regions have pledged their support to help put an end to child marriage in the country.
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The queenmothers, as custodians of tradition in the communities, said they would help to educate parents on the numerous disadvantages their children stood to encounter, including suffering from fistula, when they give them out early in marriage.
The queenmothers made thier submissions known at a day’s sensitisation workshop, organised at Dodowa by the Department of Women under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The workshop, which brought together other opinion leaders and the Chief of Adumadum Awisa in the Eastern Region, Nana Senye Wuo II, who is one of the few female chiefs in the country, was to raise awareness on issues of child marriage and its harmful effects on female reproductive health.
With a focus on fistula and its adverse effect on the health of women and girls in the country, the workshop was aimed at sensitising the queenmothers to the need to defend the rights and dignity of girls in line with efforts to begin an advocacy campaign to abolish child marriage by enforcing existing laws.
Child marriage and fistula
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, who addressed the queenmothers, said fistula was a social tragedy that could be prevented.
That, she said, could be done if girls were allowed to reach the marital age of 18 before they were given out to marriage.
She said child marriage was a global issue being fueled by religion, poverty, lack of education and belief in traditional systems.
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Nana Oye Lithur said child marriage was a serious violation of the rights of the girl-child, and called on the queenmothers to help in educating parents in their various communities not to give off the girl-child in marriage before she comes of age.
The ministry, she said, together with a fistula centre at Mankesim in the Central Region, had so far provided free fistula repairs for 68 women and girls and it is in the process of helping to re-integrate them into their communities.
The acting UNFPA Country Representative, Dr Dennia Gayle, who said sub-Saharan Africa had the highest prevalence of child marriages, pointed out that the time had come for countries to take personal interest in curbing the menace.
She said presently about 2,000,000 women, including children, were suffering from fistula, saying it was necessary for states to take bold steps that would help stop the occurrences of the fistula condition.
The Omanhene of Agona Asante Traditional Area and Member of the National House of Chiefs, Nana Frimpong Anokye, who chaired the workshop, said women played a vital role in helping to curb child marriages in the country.
He said as queenmothers, they had to take up the challenge of educating their fellow women in their communities to say no to child marriages.
He called on parents to support the girl-child in acquiring knowledge before they give them out in marriage.