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Community Child Protection Committees (JPAC) have rescued 25 teens from child marriage in the Sissala East Municipality, Sissala West and Wa West districts of the Upper West region.
Committee members revealed this during a monitoring visit by the Social Initiative for the Literacy and Development Program (SILDEP) to their various communities.
JPACs formed five years ago under the Girls’ Defense Alliance (GAA) project that is implemented in 30 communities in selected districts in the region, is to protect the rights and well-being of children and other individuals and groups vulnerable.
The implementation of the project is carried out by SILDEP in collaboration with Plan International Ghana with funds from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Moses Dramani Luri, Executive Director (CEO) of SILDEP explained that the project was being implemented with a focus on four thematic areas: child marriage; child abuse and gender violence; commercial sexual exploration; and Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and employment.
He said the goal of monitoring was to prepare communities for the end of the project and the sustainability of the profits and also to assess the status of the community’s statutes and the way forward.
During monitoring, Mr. Luri observed that approximately half of the project communities had rescued at least one girl from child marriage, which he described as impressive.
He also noted that there was evidence of efforts to ensure a violence-free society for women and children, citing the ban on record dances and loitering at night by children in most communities, especially with a special committee in charge of the community. Lassia-Tuolu in the Wa West District.
The SILDEP CEO noted that the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) initiative had also boosted the livelihood situation of communities as it served as a mobilization point for community education.
She added that she also promoted TVET, as it forced the majority of young women to participate in a productive vocation to allow them to raise funds for their daily needs and also savings.
Most communities praised SILDEP, Plan Ghana, and their donor partner for the project and pledged to continue improving profits to ensure the sustainability of the project.
Girls Club Presidents Belinda Vuur and Zulfawu Zarkaria, Lassia-Tuolu, and Baleufili Junior High Schools (JHS) were also on hand to educate their parents on how to handle girls to prevent unwanted pregnancies when schools closed in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
