The Campaign Coordinator of World Vision Ghana Mrs. Barbara Y. Asare has called on the government to provide the necessary funding to all institutions mandated to address child marriages and child rights issues to enable them to function properly.
According to her, the Domestic Violence Secretariat, which operates under the Gender Ministry, is inadequately funded to fight child marriages in particular, as well as address child rights issues in general.
She said there are approximately two million child marriages in Ghana and that the country has to invest more resources into fighting the canker or else its goal to end child marriage in 2030 may not be reached.
She explained that child brides are not economically viable because they tend to leave school earlier as a result of early pregnancy.
“Early marriage affects children’s health; also, in terms of education, Ghana is losing out because these children stop schooling right after pregnancy; and economically, they can’t work because they haven’t got what it takes to work and fend for themselves as well as dependants,” she lamented.
She therefore urged the government and Ghanaians as a whole to prioritise child marriage issues.
Mrs. Asare made this call during a two-day seminar in Accra to train some 30 journalists on the effective reporting of child marriage issues.
