The wife of northern regional minister, Hajia Alima Saeed celebrated the international women’s day with Cama girls on Friday, 8th March, 2019 in the Kumbungu district of the northern region.
In attendance of the event organised by Cama girls included a representative of the Kumbungu Naa, Marie Stopes International Ghana, Youth Empowerment for Life, Ghana Education Service gender department and other civil organizations whose core mandate is to empower the girl and end child marriage and teenage pregnancy in the region.
Hajia Alima, the Guest of Honour of the occasion lauded Cama girls for their initiative to give back to society after benefiting from Camfed. In her speech, she commended the group for narrowing the theme for this year’s celebration to their immediate environment, ‘’Balance for Better: co-opting partner to end teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
She reiterated the need to have all hands on board to tackle the menace of teenage pregnancy and child marriage. She made mention of collaborating with other relevant stakeholders in the region including governmental institution, NGOs, parents, the community leaders and the youth to curb the menace.
Hajia Alima, who is passionate about the empowerment of young girls and also supports rural women in the region encourage young girls to take up opportunities that they see and should break the chains of poverty in their family and society.
She reminded girls that, getting pregnant at a young age is not the end of their development but they can still organised themselves and pick up the piece together to rebuild their future for themselves and their babies. Marie Stopes International also educated the participants on the need to seek for reproductive health information from the right sources so that they can be well informed.
Speaking at the event, the northern regional director of Marie Stopes International Ghana, Mrs Patricia, re-emphasis the friendly environment of Marie Stopes International Ghana and how accessible they are to people. She also added that they are non-judgemental and are ready to assist anyone who need services when it comes to their reproductive health and also when they are sexually active and need information on how to protect themselves from pregnancy and other sexual related diseases.
Mr. Latif, also an officer at Marie Stopes International Ghana took the audience through the various services that the organisation offer with the kind of family planning and contraceptives they have. But he was also quick to add that client have the right to choose from any of their services after going through counselling with regards to the advantages and disadvantages of each method of protection they choose to have including safe abortion.
Cama girls is an alumnae of Camfed beneficiaries who have come back to give back to society. The Cama girls like their mother organization Camfed, is also into the empowering of young girls and women. They do advocacy work in the area of reproductive health, women empowerment and anything that has to do with the girl child education and ending teenage pregnancy and child marriage One of their major work from last year and this year is to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy, hence the theme for the celebration, Balance for Better, co-opting to end teenage pregnancy and child marriage. With their outreach programs, Cama girls have been able to send over 30 teenage mothers and fathers back to school and also learn a skill or trade in the northern region through the dues members pay and the little support they get from sponsors.
At this year’s celebration of the International women’s day, Cama girls promised to sponsor 10 girls from the Kumbungu district to either go back to school or learn a skill or trade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ZGYn54o30
