Twenty-one percent of girls in Ghana are in child marriage – Zonta Club
Madam Naana Aboagye Asare, President of Zonta Club International (Zonta) Tema Chapter, has said twenty-one per cent of young girls in the country are in child marriage.
She said there was the need for drastic measures to be taken by stakeholders in the fight against this menace that was destroying the potentials of the girl child.
Madam Asare made these remarks at the unveiling of a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) billboard at the Ashaiman overpass.
The unveiling of the billboard was done by the UNFPA in partnership with Zonta International Ghana.
She said the statistics on child marriage in Ghana was alarming and needed to be nip in the bud.
Mrs Selina Owusu, UNFPA Ghana Gender Programmes Analyst, who led in the unveiling of the billboard, said child marriage was a serious national canker that needed to be tackled with all hands on deck.
She called on all stakeholders and Ghanaians to join in the fight against child marriage and gender-based violence in the country.
She said the unveiling of the billboard was part of the commemoration of the 16-Day activism adopted by the Fund in the fight against child marriage and gender-based abuse.
“We are creating the awareness that violence in every form or shape has to be stopped. Violence affects our development that is why UNFPA and ZONTA are unveiling this billboard,” she said.
The 16-Day activism against gender-based abuse and child marriage was a platform to create awareness of gender-based abuse and fight the menace.
Mr Owusu said the country needed to draw a strategic plan against child marriage and domestic violence, adding that “we need action now as the talk is becoming too much; we need a timeline, let’s say a five-year timeline to eradicate this menace.”
The 16-Day Activism started on November 25, 2019 and would end on December 10, 2019.
Chief Inspector Sabina Ama Blay, Regional Director of the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), called on persons who were domestically abused to report to the institution and not keep it to themselves.
She commended the UNFPA for the 16-Day activism initiative and called on all Ghanaians to support the fight against child marriage and gender-based violence.
Source: GNA