The Executive Director of Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH) Hajia Halima Sagito – Saeed, has called on stakeholders in the Karaga district to protect girls by fighting against child marriage and all forms of child abuse in the district.

She made this statement at the Karaga district assembly during a high level district dialogue organized by her organization, SWIDA-GH in partnership with World Vision International – Ghana on the theme “Ending child trafficking and violence against children: The role of traditional and religious leaders”.

According to Hajia Alimah, the fight against child marriage and all forms of child abuse is not just a fight for SWIDA-GH and WVI but one that takes a collective effort from all the stakeholders.

In attendance of the event included, religious leaders, parents, heads of department at the district assembly, education unit, police, CHRAJ, school children and youth groups.

Each group presented action points that they will tackle at their level to help end the menace of child marriage and child trafficking.

The participants all agreed that child marriage undermines the growth and development of young girls, as well as robs the nation of productive youth who could contribute towards national development.

The National “End Child Marriage Now Campaign” Coordinator at the WVI, Madam Barbara Asare Yeboah said the campaign was an initiative to reduce cases of child marriage by five per cent in the country, through rolled out interventions that targeted key actors, including traditional and religious authorities, young girls and NGOs to achieve the set out objectives.

She added that the campaign was aimed at influencing national policies that protect children from abuse and also mobilize young people for purposes of empowerment and capacity building, to arm them enough to drive capacity against child marriages in their communities.

One of the key project SWIDA – Ghana runs, the Women – LEAD, which has made a lot of impact in the Northern Region and beyond, as it continues to provide opportunities for young people, especially women, to not only take up leadership positions, but excel in those positions.

The Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana), has been implementing the “Women Empowerment for Leadership and Action for Development (Women-LEAD)” in the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu Municipal Areas.

As part of the activities on this project, SWIDA – Ghana has held a review meeting to look at the work it has done so far, the achievements that have come from the inputs and what needs to be done to advance on the path towards achieving the objectives.

There was also a training on COVID – 19 Preventive Protocols for the volunteers from the ten selected communities under the two project areas.

The volunteers were made to present their observations as they work with SWIDA – Ghana on the Women – LEAD Project, as well as the challenges they have encountered doing their work through the communities.

The volunteers made their presentations in turns, which brought out a number of very important issues for the team to consider, including the need for intensifying COVID – 19 sensitization in the communities.

The agenda for the engagement of the day and the presentations made by the volunteers called for some action plans to be drawn to guide the work of the project team going forward.

This was done, as roles and responsibilities were assigned to each volunteer and members on the project team, to allow for the achievement of better results.

The Women – LEAD, is a three – year project and is being funded by Global Affairs Canada and Plan – Ghana, under the auspices of Plan International’s “Women’s Voice and Leadership” project in Ghana.

World Vision International (WVI), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), says incidences of child marriages in some part of the country, especially Northern Ghana, pose a threat to national development.

It said the practice undermined the growth and development of young girls and robbed the nation of productive youth who could contribute towards national development.

Mr Timothy Akanpabadai, Northern Regional Operations Manager of the WVI, was speaking at the Savannah Regional dialogue on “End Child Marriage Now Campaign” at Damongo on the theme: “Combating teenage pregnancy to ending child marriage Now.”

The dialogue was organized by the WVI in partnership with the Savanna Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH) and attended by traditional and religious leaders, Queen mothers, law enforcement agencies and policymakers.

It was to enable participants to discuss and determine the roles each institution could play to help protect young girls and to combat child marriage practices in some communities.

Mr Akanpabadai said child marriage destroyed the ambition of young girls and prevented them from realizing their potentials, adding that it contributed to poverty among families who gave out their girl child for marriage.

“We conducted a study in some parts of the Northern Region and we saw that about 59 per cent of young girls sampled said they were not safe in their communities out of fear of being given out for marriage and 24 per cent of parents still feel the need to give out their girl child for marriage, which is very worrying.”

He, therefore, called for the collective commitment of stakeholders to put in place measures that would protect the girl child from the social canker.

Hajia Alima Sagito-Saeed, Executive Director of SWIDA-GH, who facilitated the dialogue called on traditional rulers to be advocates for girl child empowerment in their communities.

“Our traditional leaders must be advocates for the empowerment of our young girls by ensuring that they are educated or given soft skills training so that we can achieve the desired results of having successful women in our society.”

Madam Barbara Asare Yeboah, National “End Child Marriage Now Campaign” Coordinator at the WVI, said the campaign was an initiative to reduce cases of child marriages by five per cent in the country through rolled out interventions that targeted key actors, including traditional and religious authorities, young girls and NGOs, to achieve set out objectives.

She noted that the campaign was aimed at influencing national policies that protect children from abuses and also mobilize young people to empower them and build their capacities to be lead advocates against child marriages in their communities.

Mr Saeed Muhazu Jibril, Savannah Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, commended WVI and its partners for organizing the event, and urged participants to impart the knowledge they had acquired to other members of their communities to influence behaviour change to help achieve the desired results.

Participants present at the meeting took turns to pledge their commitment to end child marriage to help accelerate development in their communities.

On the International Women’s Day – 2021, the Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana) is calling on Civil Society Organizations to continue to engage women and young girls on the various laws that have been made to protect the interests of women and to ensure the rights and protection of the girls are upheld.

The IWD, celebrated on the 8^th March, is a day set aside to campaign every year for the rights and protection of women, as well as to remind stakeholders about the laws that exist to support the course of women across the globe.

According to the official IWD Website “IWD sees a number of missions to help forge a gender equal world. Celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is key”.

The theme for the IWD – 2021 is “Choose to Challenge”, encouraging all women and stakeholders with special interests in women’s growth and development, to push they systems to help bring about change in society and to ensure equality across board.

The Savannah Integrated Women Development Agency (SWIDA – Ghana), as a women empowerment and development organization, has carried out several activities preceding the IWD and climaxed them all with an interface meeting under the Women – LEAD Project, to discuss the need for stakeholders to pay more attention to the call to action on inequality.

Government sector agencies in charge of women development including the Department of Gender, was present to engage some women on what their needs of society are, as the department assured them of what it mandate is to ensuring those needs are met, as far as the policy implementation at the local level is concerned.

Key amongst the immediate outcomes of the climax event is the acceptance of the government agencies that there is a problem with regards to equality and something must be done, to which they accept responsibility at the policy enactment and implementation level.

Other Civil Society Organization partners including PAORP – VWC and Songtaba played key roles in the IWD – 2021 event, largely also due to their numerous works and interests in women empowerment.

Northern Regional Director at the Department of Gender, Madam Bushira Alhassan also took keen interest in issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse of young girls, as she encouraged women and young girls to report such issues immediately they happen, to allow for quick intervention and help for them by the right authorities.

Women youth groups drawn from the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu Municipal areas indicated that their eyes have been opened to issues on women and girls they hitherto, did not know.

Many of the women and girls said they now know what to do and where to go anytime they become victims of domestic violence of sexual abuse of any form.

After the main event on the IWD – 2021, on – air discussions around the celebration of the day were carried out in radio stations including Kesmi FM and Radio Savannah, both in Tamale.