In this regard, three organisations, Plan Ghana International, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have initiated a project to help address the menace.
The overall goal of the 12 months project is to end early and force marriage in the region which is in line with the three organization’s core mandate to protect the rights and promote the general welfare of children so as to enable them grow to realise their fullest potentials.
Mr. Sebastian K. Ziem, Senior Principal Investigator at CHRAJ, said the project was initiated to follow a development centered approach and for this reason, it did not intend to distribute consumables to communities to be given to children to feed.
Addressing a stakeholders meeting in Wechiau, he said: “We want these children to grow to their fullest potentials and be able to fend for themselves and their dependents,” he noted.
Mr. Ziem said it was expected that by the end of the project, children, families, communities and leadership should have been aware and able as well as willing to provide safe grounds for children to develop.
That, he said would certainly be done in two ways including strengthening community child protection systems and mobilizing community members so that collectively they could fight against the menace of child and force marriages.
He said the project specific objectives were intended to create awareness on the socio-economic consequences of early and force marriages and empower children, particularly the girl child to participate actively in fighting against the menace.
It would equally ensure that safe grounds were provided for children who had been victims of the practice, he added.
The CHRAJ Senior Principal Investigator pointed out that increase safety for children especially the girl child, reduction in the incidence of child marriage and increase in enrolment and retention of children in beneficiary community schools were some of the expected outcomes of the project.
In the Wa West District, the project would be implemented across 30 communities.
Source; GNA
