By
Rosemary Wayo, GNA
Tamale (N/R),
Dec. 11, GNA -Savana Signatures is seeking to empower 2000 girls within 16
districts across the Northern, Savannah, North East, Volta and Oti regions by
the end of its one year Girls Life Choices project.
Madam Ethel Emefa
Ehla, the Project Manager for Girls Life Choices at Savana Signatures made this
known at a stakeholders’ workshop in Tamale and said the project was a child
protection one with a livelihood empowerment component.
The workshop brought
together stakeholders from institutions such as the Ghana Education Service,
Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, the Ghana Police Service and the Department of
Children.
The one year project
scheduled to end next year, is being implemented by Savana Signatures in
partnership with UNICEF, and funded by the Korean International Cooperation
Agency (KOICA).
Madam Ehla said the
project was aimed at improving the urgency of girls regarding their sexuality
to be better positioned to cater for themselves to avoid teenage pregnancies
and child marriages and said research had proven that economic empowerment
built the urgency in women.
Bagzaa Naa Issahaku
Alhassan, a Gender, Health and Development Advocate, said child marriages in
Ghana, especially the Northern Region, was as result of high rate of illiteracy
and low use of contraceptives.
He said there was
the need for parents to produce children taking into consideration their
economic strengths, to avoid instances of children fending for themselves, and
indicated that the children became vulnerable in attempts to help themselves.
He urged parents to
give their children the best of training to make them useful adults in future
and to contribute to economic growth.
She further
encouraged parents to space childbirth to enable them give quality care to
them.
Mr Sanday Iddrisu,
the Northern Regional Director of the Department of Children, lauded the
project and said early child marriage affected both sexes, but girls were
affected more and disproportionately.
He advised parents
not to see their girls as burdens and indicated that most female children were
married off because they were considered financial burdens to their families.
GNA
