Stakeholders intensify campaign against sexual, gender-based violence in C/R

A day’s empowerment outreach for girls has been organised by the Central Regional Coordinating Council and the Regional Department of Gender with support from the United Nations Population Fund towards ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the region.

The event brought together 300 young girls who were drawn from basic and senior high schools within the Ajumako Enyan Essiam District.

The programme afforded various speakers the opportunity to educate the participants on gender equality, sex and SGBV, as well as changes in adolescents and prevention of teenage pregnancy.

Follow-up

Addressing the event, the Central Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs Thywill Eyra Kpe, indicated that the training programme was a follow-up of a summit which was organised for selected girls who were mentees in the region.

She noted that the department thought it wise to decentralise the training to benefit more girls so as to address the myriad of challenges militating against the growth and development of adolescent girls in the society.

According to her, there were several things that served as stumbling blocks in the education and career advancement of girls, saying “if we want girls to achieve their goals, then such issues must be confronted head-on in the best interest of girls”.

She mentioned that provision of formal education for young girls was very essential as it would adequately prepare such girls to take up challenging and demanding tasks in the future so as to make meaningful contributions to national development.

Underlying SDGs

Mrs Kpe indicated that underlying the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was girls’ empowerment, and that it was important that more investments and interventions were continuously rolled out to ensure the advancement of girls.

For instance, she noted that child marriage and teenage pregnancy had shattered the dreams of many young girls in the region and that efforts must be put in place to nip such practices in the bud to help girls grow to become responsible women.

Any man can abuse

Mrs Kpe advised girls to always be alert and desist from running errands for suspicious men since such persons could easily take sexual advantage of them, which might have dire consequences on their personal development.

She said: “I wish to urge you all to be on the lookout at all times since any man, be it your father, brother, uncle and cousin could sexually abuse you,” and further admonished them to be proactive to be able to flee from men who wanted to assault them sexually.

For her part, Detective Sergeant Vivian Gyan-Afful of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit in the Ajumako
Enyan Essiam District urged parents to provide the basic needs of their young girls to prevent them from falling prey to men.

She advised the participants to be mindful of the freebies they received from men since such men could capitalise on it to take sexual advantage of them.

Speaking on the topic: “Changes in adolescents, causes, effects and prevention of adolescent pregnancy”, the acting
District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ms Esther Amankwah, advised young girls against pre-marital sex since child bearing among adolescents came with more complications.

She urged them to wait till they reached maturity before they got pregnant so as to reduce complications associated with childbirth.

Don’t mortgage girls’ future

The District Chief Executive for the area, Rev. Ransford Kwesi Nyarkoh, cautioned parents who demanded monies from men who sexually abused their female wards since such actions prevented the prosecution of such men.

“You cannot for the sake of poverty mortgage the future of your young girls by demanding a paltry sum of GH¢2,000 from a man who abused such a child,” he lamented, adding that “it is necessary that parents are conscientised to desist from settling such cases out of court so as to protect their female children”.

He charged male teachers to be role models to the female students and desist from taking sexual advantage of them due to their vulnerability.

A research associate at the Centre for Gender Research Advocacy and Documentation of the University of Cape Coast, Dr Amanda Odoi, encouraged the girls to set targets for themselves and work towards achieving them.

The District Director of the Ghana Education Service, Ms Sabina Otoo, who chaired the event, called for closer collaboration among stakeholders towards the protection of particularly female children.