Poverty and irresponsible parenting are the major causes of Child Marriage in North Tongu District -PPAG Reveals
Poverty and irresponsible parenting in the North Tongu constituency of the Volta Region have been identified by Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) as major causes of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in the area.
It is believed that parents in the North Tongu district are into agriculture and therefore spend more time engaging in farming activities without paying the necessary attention to their teenagers, given the opportunity for them to indulge in sexual activity leading to teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
This was made known when a non-governmental organization (NGO), Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) with funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) embarked on Relaunching of Child Marriage Free community Alert campaign in three (3) selected communities; Mepe, Vome and Adidokpoe in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.
Also aimed at enabling young people to access comprehensive sexuality education and realize their sexual rights including the right to choose when and whom to marry within the context of the law.
According to the Volta Regional coordinator of PPAG, Mr. Kenneth Atsu Goka, the Relaunching was to create more awareness and to remind the stakeholders and the communities at large of the problem of Child Marriage and putting a complete end to it.
He lamented that the incident of teenage pregnancy and child marriage and it’s related consequences is rampant in the North Tongu Constituency especially in the three (3) communities, Mepe, Vome and Adidikpoe and therefore there is the need for such activities to create much awareness.
Mr. Kenneth Atsu stressed that parental responsibility has been a great challenge in the district leading to the increasing rate of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) challenges the young people faces.
Ms Paulina Akusika Akotoyeh, the PPAG Field Officer in the North Tongu district, said the main challenge contributing to child marriage is teenage pregnancy because according to some parents, when the teenage girl gets pregnant, automatically she’s due marriage.
She said apart from poverty which compelled the girls to engage in sexual activity, parental negligence and lack of parent-child relationship leads to premarital sex, resulting in teenage pregnancy and being forced into marriage.
Ms Akotoyeh commended the teenagers, parents, community leaders, chiefs for making themselves available and contributing their quota for a successful campaign to help reduce the rampant growth of teenage pregnancies and child marriage in the district.
She said as part of efforts to help mitigate child marriage phenomenon in the North Tongu district, PPAG had been providing information on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) to the adolescents to enable them make to informed decisions.
On behalf of the stakeholders of the three (3) communities, Mepe, Vome and Adidikpoe, the assembly member for Vome electoral area, Gabriel Kwame Kissi thanked PPAG for the education.
He said it was a good initiative to equip the teenagers to have a clear knowledge of activities that leads to teenager pregnancy because for some years now they have been experiencing teenage pregnancy in numbers in the various communities.
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