By: Joyce Kantam Kolamong
“I went and laid on the mat. He called me and said I should come and lie by him on the bed, I said no. He said I should not make him angry because I was not his sister. I got up and sat at the edge of the bed and he pushed me to the bed, forced me and he raped me”. That was how a sobbing innocent girl given out in marriage begun her touching and soaring story of getting married out as a child at the age of 15.
At this moment, tears began to flow uncontrollably on her face. She looked frightened. She began to crack her knuckles while trying to use her forearm to block the watery phlegm that run from her nose as she sobbed. Her face looked pale.
Maltiti (not her real name) was a victim of child marriage. At the age of 15, she was forced into marrying a 34 year old man when she had just finished writing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2020. Maltiti hails from a community (name withheld) in the Kumbungu district of the Northern region. She comes from a family of seven. Her father is a farmer while the mother is a house wife.
“..I tried to stop him but I couldn’t…it was painful and after that I was bleeding”. Maltiti said while crying. She tried controlling the tears with the back of her right palm, but she could not. She then resorted to using her school house dress to wipe off the tears.
“I went and washed down and after some time I was in pain, I woke him up and told him my head ached. He told me to sleep and that it will be gone by day break. He said because it was my first time, and that if I got used to it, I would be the one begging him for it”. I looked at her, our eyes met and we laughed together. I observed how relieved she looked after the smiles.
Two weeks after she wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination, Maltiti was forcefully given out for marriage. Her bride price of seven hundred Ghana cedis (700) had already been paid while she was still writing her papers. Efforts to persuade her parents to stop the marriage so she could continue her education fell on deaf ears. “My father once told me that if I don’t want to die early, I should obey and marry”, she said. Luckily for Maltiti, fourteen days into the marriage, she was rescued by her former class teacher with the support of the Northern Sector Action on Awareness Center (NORSAAC) and Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), Ghanaian Locally based empowerment for change organizations focusing on women and Girls’ education in Tamale and its environs. She was admitted to one of the Senior High Schools in Tamale after release of the BECE results.
“Thanks to God and CAMFED, am back to school. I can now become the journalist I have been dreaming of”, she said beaming with smiles as she raised her head up, as if to say to the heavens, “thank you”.
Similarly, Latifa Fuseini, a 17-year-old final-year student at a Technical Institute in Tamale, narrowly escaped a forced marriage. Latifa was focused on her studies, particularly her practical exams in May 2024, however, her grandfather’s invitation to visit their village at Tolon, Northern Region, turned out to be a ruse. She was coerced into a forced marriage, but thankfully, her parents, who live in a village in Kintampo North Municipal, Bono East Region, intervened. With the help of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Latifa was rescued and returned to school. She is now sitting for her final exams, determined to complete her education.
Child Marriage
Maltiti and Latifa’s story is not an isolated one. Child marriage is a problem the world over. Each year, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18, that is one girl every two seconds. But, while awareness around the problem of child marriage is growing, for many people, the question is, How is it that, in the 21st century, girls are still finding themselves being married off at such young ages.
In developing countries, it is estimated that one in seven girls marry before age 15 and 38 percent marry before age 18. According to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), in Ghana, 4.4 and 5.8 percent of women aged 15–49 married by exact age 15 in 2006 and 2011 respectively.
In addition, among women aged 20–24, the proportion who married before exact age 18 was 22 percent in 2006 and 21 percent in 2011. The highest prevalence of child marriage in Ghana occurs in the five regions of the North, where more than one in three girls marry before age 18.
Child Marriage and Girls’ Education (Effects)
Early marriage makes attainment of higher education almost impossible for girls. Many girls who are married off before they turn 18 or are forced into early marriages are made to leave school, depriving them of their right to education and future independence.
The relationship between child marriage and educational attainment for girls is also strong. In most developing countries in the rural communities particularly, it is extremely difficult for girls to remain in school once they get married. As a result, child marriage reduces the likelihood that girls will complete their secondary education. This emerges clearly from questions asked to parents in household surveys as to why their daughters dropped out of school. Marriage is often one of the main, if not the main reason, that adolescent girls drop out of school.
Every year that a girl marries early (i.e., before 18) is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of completing secondary school of typically four to 10 percentage points, depending on the country or region. This leads to lower earnings for child brides in adulthood since a lack of education prevents them from getting good jobs. In addition, child marriage also reduces education prospects for the children of child brides by curtailing their mother’s education. Child marriage perpetuates cycles of poverty and disadvantage, limiting girls potential and undermining Ghana’s progress towards gender equality and quality.
Addressing Child Marriage
Child marriage is proven to be a major challenge for majority of teenage girls in achieving academic laurels. In addressing this societal canker and ensuring that girls in rural communities attain educational laurels, many Non-Governmental Organizations in the five regions of the North are making relentless efforts to address issues of child marriage and to keep these girls in school.
In the Upper West region, ActionAid Ghana, rescued about 152 girls in 63 communities in three districts between 2010 and 2015 and were put back in school. 53 girls from different areas including Sissala East, Jirapa and Lambusie districts were also rescued between 2015 and 2017.
The Social Initiative for Literacy and Development (SLIDEP) also rescued about twenty-seven girls between 2018 and 2019 and enrolled them in school. In 2022, it rescued about 250 girls in the Fulbe (Fulani) community in six districts of the region and returned all of them to school.
In the Upper East region, Rise Ghana rescued between sixteen and twenty-two girls since the inception of the organization in 2011. In 2019, seventeen girls were taken from forced marriage at Kolgo in the Kessena-Nankana West District. In the Nabdam District, nine girls from same school who were married off in 2017 were rescued and put back to school. Some of the girls who refused to go back to school were put on apprenticeship.
Executive Director of Rise Ghana, Awal Ahmed Kariama, an NGO in the area of child protection in the Upper East region said “Unfortunately, the menace of child marriage continues to worsen due to increasing levels of poverty as cited in the recent Ghana Statistical Service Multi-dimensional Poverty Study. Women in fertility age do not get access to sexual reproductive health information and services in reliable manner”.
In the Northern region, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ, rescued 38 girls between 2020 and 2023 and 5 girls between January and June this year ( 2024). CHRAJ has noted that child marriage persists because rescued girls often return to their previous situation due to lack of family support, which undermines efforts to protect them and ensure their education.
The Programme Officer in charge of Adolescent Programme at the Northern Sector Action on Awareness Center (NORSAAC), Hamdia Sumani, revealed that since 2020, NORSAAC and its partners have rescued 10 girls from six districts namely Tolon, Kumbungu, Kpandai, Walewale in the Northern region and Kassena-Nankana West and Builsa South in the Upper East region.
In an interview with GBC News in Tamale, Mrs. Sumani said child marriage is still rife in rural communities and it has become difficult addressing it.
Mrs Sumani said, “We also engaged traditional and religious leaders to understand child rights and child protection issues and demystify some misconceptions, and we have recorded a lot of successes, especially with the Paramount Chief of Tolon, he passed a bye-law on child marriage through our engagement with them”.
To this end, NORSAAC has adopted strategies such as the Module Gendered Household, where parents are engaged on how to delay child marriage, and Safe Space Module where adolescent girls are mentored, oriented, educated, and empowered. Mrs Sumani said “we have also engaged traditional and religious leaders to understand child rights and child protection issues and demystify some misconceptions and we have recorded a lot of successes especially with the Paramount Chief of Tolon where he passes a bye-law on child marriage through our engagement with them”.
Sustainable Development Goals and Child Marriage
The Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, address child marriage through several targets under Goal Five (Gender Equality) particularly Target 5.3 aims to eliminate all harmful practices including child marriage by 2030 while target 16.2 aims to end all forms of violence against children including child marriage by 2030. The SDGs aim to end child marriage, and to ensure girls’ education and empowerment, address social, cultural and economic factors driving child marriage, strengthen laws, policies and accountability to prevent child marriage, and engage communities and traditional leaders to change harmful norms. With just six years to hit 2030, and with the practice still rife in communities, it is projected that achieving target 5 and 16 will be farfetched.
Way Forward
The good news is that conversely, keeping girls in school is one of the best ways to delay marriage. The fight against child marriage could only be won in the country if stakeholders came together to fight it. Addressing child marriage in the Northern regions of Ghana requires a multifaceted approach. Education and awareness for communities, parents, and children about the harmful effects of child marriage must be intensified to emphasize the importance of education and girls’ empowerment. There should be Community engagements with traditional leaders, religious leaders, and community members to change attitudes and norms perpetuating child marriage. Raising awareness about laws and regulations prohibiting child marriage is crucial to preventing its practice. Intensive education and community outreach programmes could help inform citizens about legal consequences of the practice.
It is important to acknowledge efforts being made by government to combat child marriage through the government’s launch of the campaign against child marriage in April 2016. However, the Government should support alternative livelihoods by collaborating with stakeholders to provide economic opportunities and skills training for girls and their families to reduce child marriage resulting from poverty. Laws and policies protecting children from child marriage should be enforced to increase access to justice for victims while providing safe spaces for girls to share experiences, receive support, and access resources.
By implementing these recommendations, it is hoped that frantic efforts would be made by stakeholders toward reducing child marriage in the country, especially in the Northern regions of Ghana to promote a brighter future for girls.
