The Community Development Alliance (CDA) has observed this year’s International Day of the Girl Child in Wa, with a call on parents to embrace their responsibility of caring for the basic needs of their children, especially girls.

It said some parents “hide behind poverty” to shirk their responsibilities of providing the basic needs of their children, which was a major cause of teenage pregnancy.  

“Children are gifts from God, and I encourage parents to embrace the precious gifts that God has given to you and be responsible.

“Take care of them and provide all their needs so that people will not fall on their vulnerabilities, exploit them, defile them or take advantage of them, impregnate them and then they are being married off,” Madam Mercy Dakogri, the Programmes Coordinator at CDA, said.

Madam Dakogri, who said this during the commemorative event, added that the situation was creating a huge gender gap between males and females and needed the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders including parents to address. 

The CDA organised the event in partnership with Life Again, a non-government organisation in Wa that focuses on supporting girls, especially survivors of teenage pregnancy, to rebuild their lives.

It was on the theme: “Promoting Equal Rights opportunities for Girls; Unlocking Potentials” and sought to highlight the challenges girls faced and how to eliminate discriminatory practices against girls and to support and give them the right opportunity to excel in life.

Madam Dakogri stressed that it was not enough to just produce children but to live up to expectation by nurturing those children to ensure they grow to become responsible people to contribute to society’s development.

She explained that the wellbeing of girls was at the heart of the work of CDA and that they had been engaging communities and stakeholders to promote the interest and wellbeing of girls.

Madam Dakogri added that her outfit had also provided out-of-school girls with apprenticeship training and forming clubs in schools and communities to educate and keep the girls away from acts that could lead to pregnancy.

Pognaa Amamata Munmuni, the Queen Mother of Duori, a suburb of Wa, advised the girls not to yield to the deception of “men who say you are beautiful, I love you”, and said it was just to take advantage of them and afterwards dump them.

She also encouraged them to aspire to become better citizens in future by focusing on their education and making sure they were fully mature before thinking of marrying. 

Madam Saudatu Mohammed, the Executive Director of Life Again, observed that lack of Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) education was a challenge some girls face since there was no virtually sex education in schools and at home.

“There is a gap when it comes to sex education and we believe that it is one of the key causes of teenage pregnancy,” she intimated.

She advocated the need for comprehensive sex education for girls in school and at home to correct the wrong sex education some girls received on the internet to save them from unforeseen circumstances. Some survivors of teenage pregnancy shared their stories, the ordeal they went through and how they had overcome those challenges to encourage other girls not to fall victim to the snare of men.