Accra, July 22, GNA – Mrs Mathilda Ayineboma Ayamga, National Programme Coordinator, Power to You(th), Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC), has urged adolescents to set personal moral values for themselves.
‘‘If you have no values, you have no destination, once your head is filled with valuable things, there won’t be space for chaff,’’ she said.
Mrs Ayamga said this on the side-lines of a youth engagement to solicit input to update the National Operational Monitoring and Evaluation Plan to End Child Marriage for 2022-2023.
The engagement was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The participants were drawn from the Northern, Central, Eastern and Greater Accra regions together with some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) involved with issues of children and the youth.
The National Operational, Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (2020 2021) is part of the Ghana National Strategic Framework to End Child Marriage 2017-2026 developed by the Domestic Violence Secretariat of the Gender Ministry in consultation with other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Government and partners.
The overarching goal of the Operational Plan is to have a society without child marriage by 2030.
The framework seeks to provide an integrated vision and clear direction to all sectors at various levels involved with prevention and response efforts at addressing child marriage.
It sets out clear national goals, objectives, strategies and key interventions across different sectors that will lead to the gradual elimination of the practice.
The Operational plan is a two-year document implemented and reviewed at the end of the two years to meet current trends of child marriage practices.
Mrs Ayamga said the values would prevent social vices, including child delinquency and teenage pregnancy and make them fulfil their ambitions.
She advised adolescents to be take charge of their lives in addressing societal issues affecting them and be responsible for their actions.
‘‘The moment you begin to link your failures, especially, to people, you have not given yourself room to improve or learn. I don’t see parents stay in the prisons with their children, they just visit and go back home, that tells you that you are responsible for your own actions,’’ Mrs Ayamga said.
The National Programme Coordinator called on CSOs to intensify the conscious engagement of beneficiaries of programmes they had rolled out and prioritise of the planning.
She advised parents and guardians to be good role models to their children, support and mentor them.
Mrs Ayamga urged parents to be cautious not to become ‘‘accomplices’’ of their children’s social vices because of their failure to inculcate good values and provide them with good moral upbringing.
‘‘It would be difficult, though not impossible, for your children to sway off easily by peer pressure or social media if you train them well,’’ she added.
Miss Serwaa Agyapong, a pupil of Nsawam M/A Basic School, said they were going to be ambassadors against child marriage by educating other children about its effects on their lives and future.
NORSAAC is a gender-based advocacy organisation working to promote the equality of women in Ghana.
GNA