World Vision, a Christian humanitarian, advocacy and development organization has on Tuesday, 23rd August, 2022, held a durbar at Damongo in the West Gonja municipality targeted at ending child violence and child marriage with soccer clinic under the theme; "Ending Child Violence and Promoting Holistic Transformation of children through Soccer".
In a welcome address, the cluster programmes manager, Mr. Felix Apeti explained that, his outfit is dedicated and committed to working to transform the lives of children, families and communities worldwide so that they can reach their full potentials by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
He added that, in the pursuit of “their vision for every child, life in all its fullness, their prayer for every heart, the will to make it so”, World Vision Ghana launched the national end child marriage campaign and ending all forms of violence against children in 2017 in Tamale and sinced, engaged all stakeholders in the fight against the canker at the regional and district levels.
The cluster programmes manager further explained that, the future of the most vulnerable girls and boys, especially the girl child is being robbed by trading them for all forms of violence especially early marriages.
He disclosed that, over 24% of parents and primary caregivers in the West Gonja municipality as of 2019 still believe that, their children should exchange their future with early marriages (AMIC, 2019).
He further disclosed that, records available to them by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has it that, about 555,575 teenage pregnancies where recorded among girls of age 10 to 19 in Ghana between 2016 to 2020 and aggravated during the COVID-19 lockdown of schools, adding that, On average, 112,800 girls get pregnant every year.
Mr. Felix Apeti noted that, as of 2021, over 4% of children, a jump from 3% in 2019 (AMIC, 2019) aged from 12 to 18 were reported married or have experienced some form of sexual abuse (Technical Programme Baseline, West Gonja, 2021) though 78% of children in the West Gonja municipality feel very safe within their environment, the statistics show that parents, caregivers, the communities and duty bearers are not doing much to protect the children.
He further noted that, nearly all children in World Vision's Programme in the west Gonja municipality have birth certificates but expressed gratitude to their partners for their continuous sensitization and community engagements to help end child violence and child marriage, a situation that is not looking good and needs the support of all stakeholders to pursue a holistic transformation of girls and boys.
Mr. Felix Apeti called on the stakeholders to take steps to work with the law enforcement agencies to penalize persons causing harm to children and also urged state agencies such as social welfare and community development , CHRAJ, Traditional leaders and others to do their job a bit more aggressive to help end the menace.
He revealed that, a strong community feedback mechanism will be instituted to track progress made in child protection issues within the communities, adding that, efforts are being put in place to reduce preventable deaths among children.
He also added that, they are working in partnership with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to educate the children on new developments in the scheme and renew or register them with NHIS health cards to enable them access quality healthcare on timely bases and also with the environmental health and sanitation department to also educate the children on the need to keep their schools, homes and surroundings clean for human habitation in order to promote healthy environments and wellness while teaming up to fight the menace of open defecation in their communities.
Madam Barbara Asare Yaboah, the child protection and advocacy coordinator at world vision on her part, called on children to take their education serious to enable them become responsible parents, and leaders in their various communities.
She admonished young girls in the West Gonja municipality, to abstain from early sex and urged the boys to protect girls rather than taking advantage of them and also called on parents to avoid giving their daughters out for early marriages.
The Durbar was coupled with the most cherished game - soccer among girls from various schools as a conduit to propagate the message on positive parenting and protecting all children from violence and abuse.
Kumatey Gorden/0243531604