By James Esuon
Agona Swedru, Nov 26, GNA – The Central Regional Directorate of the National Youth Authority (NYA), in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), has held a dialogue session for some youth groups and traders in Agona West on sexual and gender-based violence (SGV).
The 320 youths, apprentices, okada riders and street hawkers were sensitised to be ambassadors of reducing gender-based violence and early child marriage.
The programme, sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), aimed at reducing SGV, child marriage and teenage pregnancy and their ripple effects on society.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency after the dialogue, Mrs Anita Nana Seguah Ansah, the Central Regional Director of NYA, urged participants to disseminate the message to reduce the effects of SGV in the society.
She said the NYA had started a series of engagements with various targeted groups with the potential to engage in sexual and gender-based violence, which had made positive impact, with teen pregnancy cases going down drastically in the region.
Mrs Ansah said about three months ago, the NYA’s monitoring and evaluation team’s report indicated that the Central Region would achieve zero per cent cases of teen pregnancy and SGV.
Mr Solomon Amoako, the Agona West Municipal Officer of the Department of Social Welfare, who spoke on child marriage and cohabitation, cautioned participants to desist from engaging in such practices because it could lead them into prison.
He said although cohabitation and child marriage were classified as crime, they were still happening because of economic and financial difficulties.
Some cultural and traditional practices could also contribute to child marriage with serious repercussion on the girl-child and the society at large, he said.
Available statistics worldwide put the child marriage figure at about 12 million cases, he said, and appealed to traditional rulers, the clergy and religious leaders to kick against the practice.
Detective Sergeant Richard Donkoh at the Swedru Divisional Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), who spoke against SGV Bwarned participants against the abduction of girls under16 years for sexual intercourse.
He said many young men and boys, who had brighter future, were languishing in jail due to defilement, rape and other SGV infringements.
Sergeant Donkoh, therefore, urged the participants to be good ambassadors to educate their friends and brothers on Act 29/ 60 of the Criminal Law, which stipulates serious punitive measures for those who committed such offences.
Mr David Alan Paintsil, the Focal Person of UNFPA, said the programme was to help reduce the incidents of SGVs in the region to ensure quality transformation of human development.
He said as part of the efforts to bring down the menace, similar programmes have been held for Muslims in Agona Swedru and Assin Fosu to ensure that young men and boys, who were street hawkers, okada riders, and apprentices would distance themselves from such harmful behaviour.
GNA