By Priscilla Oye Ofori
Accra, Sept. 04, GNA – Community and woman leaders have been urged to lead preventive action against child marriage, adolescent exploitation and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) by combining community sensitisation with safe, confidential reporting systems.
Ms Joyce Odame, the Child Protection Officer, United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), made the call at the Gender and Women Leaders Short Course organised by the Regent University College of Science and Technology (RUCST), in collaboration with the Obaapa Development Foundation and its partners.
Ms Odame said there was the need to prevent these vices rather than responding after the harm had occurred, calling on leaders to take concrete steps in their communities and businesses.
She said leaders who had been exposed to the drivers of early marriages and exploitation should carry out sensitisation for young girls, parents and caregivers on the dangers and on how to support girls to develop.
Ms Odame said several parents shied away from discussing issues of puberty and sexuality, leaving girls to experiment out of curiosity and exposing them to transactional sex and early marriage.
“We must make it a supportive approach. Girls need to know that it is normal to experience changes, but they must be taught to be careful and to be able to say no. They must understand that transactional sex is not the only way out,” she added.
She encouraged leaders to link girls to trusted mentors they could confide in.
Madam Medlody Darkey, the Executive Director, WiLDAF Ghana, called on traditional authorities and community leaders to use their influences to speak out openly against violence and to challenge norms that anchored it.
She urged leaders to create discreet and safe channels for victims and survivors to report abuse without fear of stigma, backlash or retaliation, which often silenced survivors.
Madam Darkey said once cases were reported through those channels, they must be escalated to the mandated state institutions for enforcement.
The Executive Director cautioned traditional leaders against settling serious cases of GBV in the bid to reconcile families, noting that some were out of ignorance of the law.
“There are cases where the law permits traditional leaders to settle to promote reconciliation, and they should apply the right principles,” she said.
She however cautioned them against any attempt to sit on cases that were above their jurisdiction and urged them to rather report such cases to the right authorities.
Madam Darkey encouraged women leaders to use their convening powers to mobilise communities, modify harmful norms, and ensure girls stayed in school while women lived free from violence.
Nana Akosua Afi Addobea, the Mampong-Akuapem Guantoahememea, said as a lawyer in the palace, she had benefitted from and gained renewed knowledge from the legal topics shared at the training, which would help her in the handling of cases at the palace.
Nana Pambia IV, the Divisional Queenmother, Ngleshie Amanfrom, called for collective efforts in eliminating the harmful practices in communities.
She said the topics treated on GBV, and child marriage would help women leaders in solving such cases to ensure the safety of women and girls within the community.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo
By Priscilla Oye Ofori
Email: [email protected]