The Evangelical Presbyterian Church through the Evangelical Presbyterian Development and Relief Agency has launched a women’s empowerment project, with the sole aim of uplifting the girl child.

The Gender Equity and Support Against Early Child and Forced Marriage project seeks to focus on behavioral change to address issues pertaining to child and early marriage, teenage pregnancy and abuse in the Ghanaian society.

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, 1 in 5 girls aged 20-24 years are married before the age of 18, pegging incidents of child marriage at 27% in Ghana, and at 36.2% in rural Ghana in 2011.

The illegal act denies young girls of good health, education and the choice of when and whom to marry, violating their fundamental human rights. 

Child or early marriages have been identified to perpetuate poverty, as victims are denied education and skill training, hence remain dependent on their husbands. 

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, therefore, launched an advocacy project with a focus on women empowerment to complement efforts in finding solutions to the practices.

The project would focus on mobilizing families and communities, providing services and establishing and implementing laws and policies against the violation of the fundamental human rights of young girls in the Ghanaian society.

The Coordinator of the Gender Equity and Support Against Early Child and Forced Marriage Project, Charles Sakyi, explained that the project would be carried out in 3 phases across all 16 regions of the country, with focus on behavioral change. 

He said 16 Community-Based Anti-Violence Teams would be constituted to undertake the project by organizing workshops, community forums among other social engagements to enlighten community members. 

He said the community members would be educated about women empowerment and the need to abhor practices that violates the fundamental human rights of children.

“These people we are going to train are the Community-Based Anti-Violence Team members. There will be 10 women who will be the facilitators, 10 female students, 2 teachers, the moderator of the presbytery, who would play a supervisory role, and 2 General Assembly Council members.

"So, they will organize workshops and community forums and interactive activities to educate them on how to defend their rights. The girls will be empowered to really fight for their own rights”, he said. 

Mr Sakyi said that the teams would employ the use materials such flyers, posters, drama, video and audio jingles to help the society to better understand.

The Moderator of the General Assembly, Rt. Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. Bliss Divine Agbeko (Rtd), acknowledged the significance of the the project and entreated the implementing institution to also consider roping in young males, for a better future.

"If a young girl drops out of school, the impact on the society is minimal, but when a young male drops out and drifts into bad company, we all know what he is capable of doing in the society", he said.

The Gender Equity and Support Against Early Child and Forced Marriage project aims at building a society that would enable young girls to become accomplished women.