“Let daughters grow into women” Deputy U/W Regional Minister


Parents have been asked to allow their daughters to grow into women before they “begin to think of giving them out for marriage”. 

The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Mushiebu Mohammed-Alfa who gave the advice equally encouraged parents to focus on the education and training of their children, especially their daughters for them to become useful citizens. 

He was speaking at durbar organized by Centre for Development Initiatives (CDI), an NGO in collaboration with the Fielmuo Traditional Council at Fielmuo in the Sissala District of the Upper West Region. 

According to GBC’s Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo, the well-attended event formed part of CDI’s engagements pertaining to the Community Empowerment Against Child Marriage (CEACM) project it is undertaking with the Fielmuo Traditional Council as well as interested groups and the Sissala West District Assembly with monetary support from UNICEF. 

The focal point of the durbar was “Ending Child Marriages: Key to Sustainable Development of the Fielmuo Traditional Area”. 

Dr. Mohammed-Alfa emphasized that the family and the community have the major responsibility of keeping young people from harm and exploitation, saying the durbar was a useful platform to drive home the need for a collective efforts to adopt measures to stem all forms of child abuse. 

The Deputy Regional Minister stressed the importance for CDI to intensify its activities to empower family and community structures to appreciate the negative effects of child marriage to a community and the nation at large. 

A Child Protection Specialist of the Tamale Office of UNICEF, Joao Mendes pointed out that child marriage is a very complex phenomenon which demands a standard response at different levels to ensure the desired behavior transformation at the community level. 

He stated that “every child marriage is everyone’s business” and that we should not turn our back on the harmful practice but we should make sure that there is a mechanism for reporting child marriage cases as well as handling them.  

The Child Protection Specialist also stressed that the intervention on child marriage has to be results based via impact assessment else it will be very difficult to “say we are impacting this community [Fielmuo] in terms of ending child marriage” Mr. Mendes reiterated UNICEF’s commitment to support the government of Ghana in projects and interventions that will upscale the protection and welfare of children. 

The Executive Director of the Centre for Development Initiatives (CDI), Alexis Dery Danikuu indicated that child marriage is pervasive and that over 40 teachers sampled at a meeting recently, more than half them said they said they know a girl who had dropped out of school as a result of the practice. 

He admonished the public to see the durbar as a brainstorming session on how and what can be done differently to bring down child marriage. 

The Gaapare Naa, Naa Cyril K. Degbang who stepped in for the Fielmuo Naa, Naa Francis Danikuu said the Fielmuo Traditional Council is in support of the efforts to end child marriage in the traditional area. 

Naa Degbang also assured CDI that the chiefs and elders will ensure that cases of child marriage are reported to relevant authorities as a way of providing children the needed protection and enabling environment to engender a better future for them in the 18 communities that constitute the Fielmuo Traditional Area.  

The DCE for Sissala West, Bukari Dramani said the life of young people should not be cut short as a result of early marriage and pledged that the District Assembly is ready to collaborate with stakeholders to deal appropriately with those behind the harmful practice of child marriage. 

The Programs Officer of CDI, Stanislav Dery observed that “we have to chase the monster called child marriage into the bush” because the menace contributes to poverty as children do not have skills and jobs to make them financially independent. 

He re-stated the fact that one has to be 18 years and above to order to be eligible for marriage and that “a girl below 18 years entering into marriage is either being pushed or misled”. 

The Sissala West District Director of Health, Madam Cecilia Kakariba mentioned some of the health implications of child marriage as maternal deaths, neonatal mortality, obstetric fistula, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, post-partum depression, rapture of uterus and prenatal psychological distress.

GBC