By Seraphine Nyuiemedi, Volta Region.
The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Thywill Eyra Kpe, has called for concerted efforts to help address all forms of abuse against children which is on the ascendency in the Region and the country as a whole.
She disclosed that 1 out of 4 girls in the region is likely to be married off before attaining the age of 18. She said domestic violence nearly doubled from more than 600 cases in 2019 to more than 1000 cases in the region in 2020. She said this indicates that 6,000 teenage pregnancies were recorded within the same period.
Mrs. Kpe was speaking in Ho, at a Two-Day Mentorship and Empowerment Programme for school children in the Volta Region.
The two-day Mentorship and Empowerment programme which was organized by the Volta Regional office of the Department of Gender with funding from the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA saw 60 adolescent girls and boys from the region, participating in the program.
It was aimed at developing the capacities of the young ones on issues of teenage pregnancy, Sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), child marriage, among other issues.
The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Thywill Eyra Kpe said in the era of globalization, education is the most important tool for the empowerment of any young person and therefore urged young people to pursue their education with all seriousness in order to secure a better future.
‘’It’s your future aspirations, your social economic empowerment and that of your unborn children, your entire children and society as a whole. We need total commitment from all stakeholders including you to achieve this’’.
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, urged the young participants to be ambassadors in their schools and communities to educate their peers. He also tasked them to freely communicate their plight to their parents, teachers and trusted elders for a solution.
Some of the participants who were excited about the program spoke to GBC News.
We’re expected to go back to our schools and districts and talk about what we have learnt here and the impact it is going to have on our lives. We have also been advised to open up to people even when they are troubled. We can also share our problems as well to people to talk to our parents about our problems than to keep it to ourselves’’.
The Mentorship and Empowerment Programme was on the theme: “Accelerate Action to End Adolescent Pregnancy and SGBV in the wake of Covid-19: TIME IS NOW!”.
