#GhanaEndsChildMarriage

Ghana has officially launched a national campaign to end Child Marriage! This campaign was led by the Minister of Gender , Children and Social Protection in Ghana ; Ms Nana Oye Lithur.

We need to train up our girls to be Leaders not Child brides.

40% of girls in Africa are married off before their 18th birthday. Believe it or not till this very day in ''Developing Ghana'' almost 27% of girls are subjected into marriage meaning 1 in 4 women  are married before the age of 18 , despite 18 being the legal age for marriage across the nation .

The Upper Eastern Region alone has the highest rate of child marriage in the nation which is 39% surprisingly followed by the Western Region. When researching about this particular issue in Ghana , I assumed that the Northern Region would have the highest percentage of child brides across the nation. However it seems that child marriage was once a problem in the Northern Region and not so much today. When looking at statistics it turns out that fewer girls are married of in this region compared to the Upper Eastern Region and Western Region. 

Yes , there are factors which comes down to the governance of the nation as to why this still takes place , such as the unequal development of regions in the Upper Eastern Region and Northern Region compared to the Ashanti and Greater Accra of Ghana. However, lets not play the blame game and give credit to our ministers and advisers for taking this step to launch the campaign , there are many nations out there that have a higher percentage of child brides and have turned a blind eye to it.

Most importantly ,what are we teaching our girls ? 

Let us empower our girls and teach them to rise above social conventions and help them recognise their potential.

We need to teach our girls that education is an important weapon in life, a weapon that will make them socially and economically powerful. We need to give them the opportunity and freedom to be able to earn money and reinvest their income back into their family and community to help break the cycle of poverty. This will also allow them be able advocate that child marriage should never be an option to even consider.

#GhanaEndsChildMarriage

  

Dorcas Okyere 

http://www.unicef.org/ghana/REALLY_SIMPLE_STATS_-_Issue_5(3).pdf