Wednesday 10th October 2018 saw Radio Peace visiting Gomoa Nkoransa community where they engaged community members in discussions to find ways in stopping child marriage. A UNICEF Report released in June 2016 ranked Ghana tops in Child Marriage in West Africa. Child Marriage is an illegal act in Ghana. Both the constitution and the Children’s Act 1998 set the legal age for marriage at 18 for girls and boys. Therefore, child marriage is marriage or informal union in which one or both parties involved are below the age of 18. Further, statistics from the Ghana 2008 Demographic and Health Survey indicates that about 25% of women between 20 and 24 years were married or in a union before age 18.
The discussions took the form of focus group discussions. Eight focus groups were organised made up of Girls ages 12-15 years, Boy ages 1215 years, Girls ages 16-18 years, Boy ages 16-18 years, Mothers and grandmothers, Fathers and grand fathers, Women Traditional Authorities/Opinion Leaders and Men Traditional Authorities/Opinion Leaders. The Focus Group Discussions sought to provide deeper understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to the behaviour of the populations represented by the Focus Groups and their community as a whole.
The discussions covered broad areas like: Understanding Child Protection, Assessment of Child Protection Today, Child Marriage in the Community, The Right Age to Marry, the role of Community among others. The discussions in each focus group were lively, open, frank and revealing with facilitators taking copious notes. At the end of the exercise, The Queen Mother and Care-taker of the Nkoransa Community, Nana Adwowa Otua Tekyi Armah I, expressing her thought said: “I am very impressed of what has happened here today. This kind of meeting has never happened in Nkoransa. Our discussions have revealed a number of issues on Child Marriage and I promise to lead the campaign to alleviate the situation in this community”. She further called on Radio Peace to visit the community more often. A public forum to verify the findings in the focus group discussions is to be held in the community at a later date.
The community meeting was made possible with the support of UNICEF, Ghana Office, through the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) under the project name; Community Radio – Community Participation in 2 Key Behaviours (CR-CP2KB).
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