• 08 Jan, 2024
• Classic Ghana
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The Teenage Girl Rescued From Early Marriage 

Marilia (not her real name), a teenage girl, was rescued from her intended marriage by the Boys Club of her community, which is one of the strong advocacy networks in the Upper East Region of Ghana. 

The Network currently works under the Department of Gender of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in collaboration with the community, Assembly Members, traditional authority and religious leaders. 

It aims to educate the youth against child marriage, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and the consequences of these acts on them. 

Call for help

Presently, the teenage girl is still looking up to stakeholders to help her progress in her work.  

After enrolling herself as an apprentice in her area to start her training as a sewist, she is yet to get a startup, and must borrow an old sewing machine, which she currently shares with its owner who is also an apprentice. 

She said she will need about GH¢5,000 to enable her to get the needed materials as a beginner, which is a prerequisite for her entry as a trainee for the skills. 

Reports

Globally, many girls like Marilia suffer the same challenges of early and forced marriages due to distinct reasons, with the basic one being financial difficulty of families to support their female children through their education. 

But the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is the Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency of the UN, continues to advocate against child marriage because it is a human rights violation. 

However, despite the existing laws against the practice, it is still widespread in most communities in nations. 

Reports by the USAID estimate that 10 million girls are married every year before they reach their 18th birthday and every minute, 28 girls get married, and every second, one girl gets married.  

It is also anticipated that 150 million more girls will be married by 2030 if efforts to curb the trend are not intensified. 

Globally one in every five girls are formally married in an informal union before reaching age 18 and in the least developed countries, that number doubles according to reports, with 36 per cent of girls being married before age 18, and 10 per cent of girls are married before fifteen years.  

In Ghana alone reports indicate that one in five girls aged 20 to 24 years is married before the age of 18. 

Regional data from the 2014 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) reveals that in terms of regional records of percentages, the Northern region recorded 39.6 of child marriages, Upper West 37.3, the Upper East 36.1, Eastern Region 27.5, Western 32.9, Central Region 29.5, Ashanti Region 25.9, Volta 25.9 per cent, Brong Ahafo Region 23.9, and Greater Accra 18.5 per cent. 

Narrating her story to this writer during a follow up interview at her community, Marilia said, “When my marriage was stopped, not because I misconducted myself, but due to the many eyes of the public and their outcry, that I am still 17 years and too young for marriage, it put me into more trouble”.   

“I have now opted to learn a trade because my Senior High School results cannot take me further up the educational ladder, so I need financial support to enable me to achieve my dreams,” she said. 

The teenage Muslim girl from Bongo whose marriage could not come on as scheduled by her family, like other teenage girls in Ghana and other places globally, go through challenges of abandonment, lack of support from their families when they fail to honour such decisions taken for them. 

This reveals that more needs to be done by stakeholders and the public to support her and curtail such situations in the future. 

 Story of the teenager  

Marilia attended school in the Navrongo in the Kassena Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region, but because of challenges ranging from financial difficulty by her parents to support her in school, the family decided to give her out for marriage.  

“My single mother was earnestly happy that the marriage was the best option because after my father’s death, life had been difficult for her to single handedly support my siblings and I,” she said.  

In her response to how the family have been treating her after the failed marriage, she said it is cordial.  

“My mother has no other option than to admit to the outcry of the community members, friends and activists against teenage marriages as the new law demands,” she said. 

Marilia, however, said things have not been the same, because her plans of learning a trade instead are being challenged by the lack of financial support, contrary to her expectation of life after her curtailed marriage. 

Call for help

Presently, the teenage girl is still looking up to stakeholders to help her progress in her work.  

After enrolling herself as an apprentice in her area to start her training as a sewist, she is yet to get a startup, and must borrow an old sewing machine, which she currently shares with its owner who is also an apprentice. 

She said she will need about GH¢5,000 to enable her to get the needed materials as a beginner, which is a prerequisite for her entry as a trainee for the skills. 

UNFPA interventions

The UNFPA has been pushing for an end of the phenomena through its policies and it drives programmes that supports evidence-based, girl centred investments that empower girls with information, skills, and services they need to be healthy, educated, and safe to be able to transition into adult women. 

Like other teenagers, Marilia has just ended a marriage that is believed is not right for her because of her health and her future but interventions that will help her to keep herself out of the same situations are a mirage. 

Though the UNFPA may not be supporting livelihood programmes directly, it is in partnership with institutions that can support activities to save the girls, and well-meaning Ghanaians must help the needy. 

While Ghana is making efforts to promote girls’ education, skill development, and providing employment opportunities through government policies, there should be accelerated action to end child marriages, not only in Ghana or Africa but globally. 

Mr James Twene, the Regional Director of Upper East Regional Department of Women who spoke the GNA on the plight of the teenage girl, reiterated calls for more advocacy to bring sectors together to support the victim and others facing similar problems. 

A USAID resource guide on Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (CEFM), provides cross cutting approaches to addressing early marriages and advocates that efforts within just one sector cannot solve it.  

Therefore, prevention and response services should be integrated across various sectors to create a comprehensive strategy for reducing and mitigating the effects of CEFM, as well as meeting the needs of married adolescents. 

Recommendations

As solutions to the challenges become a burden on families faced with CEFMs, there is a need for shared responsibility of all the sectors by,” leveraging each other’s funding and resources to develop a holistic approach to CEFM prevention and response,” the report advocated.

The Bolgatanga Regional Coordinating Council in the Upper East Region is a collaborator of the UNFPA in addressing Child marriage issues and will need to do more to harness the various sectors that support livelihood activities for young girls both married and unmarried with skills and information, increase their knowledge and skills. 

The current UNFPA-supported intervention programmes in six districts in the Upper East Region should be extended to cover all districts and traditional authorities to stamp their feet in condemning and help curtail child marriages. 

The Department of Gender should receive support to upscale its intervention efforts to reach districts that have not yet been covered. This unified approach is vital to eliminating GBV and early marriages, as emphasised in the Sustainable Development Goal, target 5.3. 

Role of Media and Communication Advocacy Network (MCAN) 

The media plays a significant role in promoting health and social development. MCAN is working with partners to advocate against child marriage in Ghana. 

By Fatima Anafu-Astanga

Source: GNA