By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), Sept. 28, GNA – Seven girls in the Upper West Region, have been rescued from child marriage through the UNFPA/UNICEF joint assisted anti-child marriage intervention, being implemented in the region under its seventh Ghana Country Programme.
Three of the seven rescued survivors are currently in Senior High School (SHS), two in Junior High School (JHS) and two undergoing skills training in Wa.
Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, revealed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Wa.
She said the intervention had also helped in restoring confidence in community leaders in the fight against child marriage.
“It has also increased commitments from traditional, and religious leaders to the fight against child marriage, strengthened community structures to take action and restored trust in the law enforcement agencies leading to increase in reporting of cases,” she explained.
The UNFPA/UNICEF joint anti-child marriage intervention, which started in the Upper West Region in 2021 and expected to end in 2023, is led by the Upper West Regional Department of Gender in collaboration with other partners.
The intervention is being implemented in the Jirapa Municipality, Lambussie, Sissala West, Wa West, Nadowli-Kaleo, Daiifiama-Bussie-Issa (DBI), and the Wa East Districts.
Madam Batuure indicated that traditional leaders in the region had been committed and supportive of the interventions geared towards reducing or ending the practice of child marriage.
She, however, observed that entrenched position of some traditions and norms in certain communities, as well as “interference from the powers that be in the prosecution of some child marriage cases,” among others served as setbacks in the fight against the issue of child marriage.
She commended UNFPA and UNICEF for the intervention and its continuous support to the government’s efforts in ensuring that child marriage became a thing of the past in the region.
Yuora (not her real name), a 13-year-old girl from Buchey, a small border community between Burkina Faso and Ghana along the Lawra-Babile stretch of the Black Volta in the Lawra Municipality, narrowly escaped an attempted child marriage after her biological father “sold” her for money to perform his father’s funeral rites.
Madam Batuure explained that Yuora was given out by the father for marriage for GHȻ1,000.00, a goat, fowls, and some cowries.
She said their investigations revealed that Yuora was given out for marriage without her knowledge, let alone to talk of her consent, neither was Yuora’s mother in the known of the “trade deal.”
Yuora, who is currently at the Jinsung Shelter for Survivors of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) in Wa, told the GNA that she was not ready for marriage but was being forced into it.
The innocent girl narrated haw she was picked-up by three strong men onto a motorbike, escaped with her to Babile, put her into the next available vehicle heading towards the Afram Plains area to seek greener pastures.
She was on an arrand for her mother to fetch baobab fruits, so she had moved out with her basin, wearing a cloth and a pair of slippers, because to her, it was a normal day, but little did she know that it was a journey into a new life as a married girl.
Yuora expressed gratitude to the Upper West Regional Department of Gender and its partners for rescuing and supporting her to undergo the skills training for her benefit and that of her family when she returned home.
Madam Batuure said they were working to ensure that every child enjoyed his or her childhood irrespective of their geographical location, nationality or sexual orientation saying, “She (Yuora) must be given the liberty to be a child and not forced into marriage.”
She encouraged the members of the communities to report cases of child marriages to the community leaders and the security agencies for the necessary actions to be taken.