Stay chaste and free from sexual abuse – Gender activis

To ensure that young girls stayed chaste and free from sexual abuse, the Upper West Regional Director of the Depart­ment of Gender, Mrs Charity Banye has asked them to take responsi­bility of their bodies and not allow themselves to be sexually abused by men.

“You are not a refuse dump, no one has the right to abuse you at this young age in the name of relation­ship or under the guise of sponsoring your education so you need to take responsibility of your body,” she advised.

Mrs Banye gave this advice during an inter-generational colloquium organised by Curious Minds. It was supported by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) – United Nations Children’s Fund Social and Behaviour Change (GBC-UNICEF SBC) Project.

The meeting which brought togeth­er pupils from basic schools across the Wa Municipality focused on “Building a better Ghana: eliminat­ing harmful practices for sustainable development” and sought to create a platform for dialogue on ending harmful practices such as child mar­riage and teenage pregnancy.

The Director stated that men who had carnal knowledge of girls be­cause they were providing for them did not have good intentions for such girls and were only taking advantage of their vulnerability to abuse them.

“Sadly, most of the teenage preg­nancy cases we have been recording recently involve boys impregnating their classmates and teachers having affair with their own pupils so we have to speak out if we are put un­der such circumstances,” she said.

According to the director, when the boys impregnate the girls they are unable to take care of them so they leave them to their fate to become a burden on their parents.

Mrs Banye appealed to the boys to protect the girls and not sleep with them and also encouraged the youngsters to focus on their educa­tion instead of engaging in un­healthy relationships and pre-mari­tal affairs.

For his part, the Project Manager, Mr Kingsley Obeng Kyere called for deliberate allocation of resources to promote the rights and well-be­ing of children in Ghana.

He explained that the resources should be used to support efforts aimed at protecting children from harmful practices such as early marriage, parental negligence of duty and other harmful societal practices that prevent children from discovering and reaching their full potentials in life.

Mr Kyerej, who is also a journalist said that the sustainable develop­ment goals and other such inter­national declarations considered the well-being of children hence it had enshrined specific clauses to promote the rights of children.

He appealed to stakeholders in child welfare issues to work togeth­er to protect the rights of children.

 From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa