B/R Five girls rescued from child marriage – Gender Ministry

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has revealed that the department rescued five girls in the Bono Region from child marriage.

This was revealed by the Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Joycelyn Adii, when the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, paid a courtesy call to the Bono Regional Minister and interacted with heads of departments in Sunyani as part of her two-day visit to the region.

The girls, according to the regional director were Junior high school students aged between 15 and 16 and were rescued in 2023 explaining that, three of the girls were rescued at New Dormaa near Sunyani, one in Dormaa and the last girl who travelled from the North East Region, was also rescued at a village near Sunyani.

Ms Adii further noted that three of the girls were back in school to pursue their education while one was learning a trade but the last girl could not be traced.

Although rescuing the victims was not easy due to the tussle between officials of the department, parents and the victims, Ms Adii noted that the department is monitoring the victims’ movements and their stay in school despite parents disowning their children for refusing to marry partners chosen for them.

As part of the visit, Ms Harriet Thompson also had a meeting with the Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, visited the Pangolin Conservation and had dinner with the regional executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP), among others and noted that her outfit is ready to support the region whichever way it could.

The Bono Regional Minister, Justina Owusu-Banahene, thanked Ms Thompson for her visit and called on her to partner with the Bono Regional Coordinating Council to solve some of the problems enumerated during the presentations.

Source:myrepubliconline