The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Welfare Protection (MoGWP) has organized a one-day sensitization workshop for the media in Kumasi.
The purpose of the workshop is to educate journalists in the Northern Zone of Ghana, the ministry’s new portal (The Child Marriage Information Portal) for reporting on issues related to child marriage.
Madam Safia Tamimum, Head of the Child Mariage Unit, Ministry Of Gender Children and Social Protection told Oyerepa News that, the Child Marriage Information Portal which was created in 2021 intends to give accurate information and data about child marriage issues to help the media and the general public to fight against child marriage, thereby eliminating it by 2030.
“The Portal has to deal with information on issues with Child Marriage. So we expect the public, the NGOs, and CSOs who work around issues of child marriage to be able to get information for us so that we put it in the portal for them to go there and get information, data and all activities, resource materials that have to do with child marriage.” She disclosed.
Ghana’s Fight against Child Marriage So Far
According to Safia Tamimum, despite some challenges facing the Gender Ministry, it is working assiduously to end Child Marriage by 2030 and therefore significant steps are being put in place to achieve the target.
“Ghana is on track in ending Child Marriage even though we have a pocket of issues coming up especially when we look at the figures based on the 2021 population and housing census, we realise that places like the Northern Region and North East still have a high rate of child marriage but in all, we can say that Ghana isn’t doing bad in combating the menace.”
Speaking about some challenges of the portal since its opening in 2021, Safia Tamimum indicated that, although there are available resources for the fight against the canker, the Child Marriage Unit has not gotten enough information from partners, NGOs, the media and the general public.
“The portal was launched on September 28, 2021, and even though we have the materials in there, people don’t visit the portal to access information.
Also, the information we need from our partners has not been forthcoming since we launched the portal.” Tamimum added.
The Ashanti Regional Head for the Department of Gender Madam Ama Nyantah Boateng on the other hand said the Ashanti Region did not record any issue related to child marriage in 2024. However, her outfit is working hard via various regional symposiums to eliminate the canker.
“Before I assumed office about a year ago there were some issues of Child Marriage in the Ashanti Region but this year we’ve not recorded or received any issue of child marriage. However, that doesn’t mean the menace does not go on. What we have realised is that most people find it difficult to report on child marriage-related issues because it’s part of us and people tend to shield it from others.”
‘We are heavily campaigning against the menace and I can say that so far in Ashanti, the dissemination of the information has gone very far”.
The Ashanti Gender Boss, however, advised the people to make it a mandate to report child marriage-related issues to be able to combat the menace.
“If you are going through child marriage issues, tell someone because the practice is against the laws of the country.”
She added that, “We’re putting a lot of measures in place and even if we’re unable to eliminate it abruptly, we can reduce it by 2030.”
Source: Oyerepafmonline.com / Joseph Marfo
