Girl Child Coordinator Advocates for Responsible Parenting and Education Support in Shama District
The Girl Child Coordinator in the Shama District of the Shama Constituency, Francisca Cann, has called on parents and guardians to be responsible for the welfare of their female wards.
Speaking to journalists, after a visit to some selected girls in junior high school, Madam Cann observed that most girls have dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancy.
Madam Cann observed that most school-going girls indulge in prostitution in exchange for favours such as cash, gifts, and others to support themselves and their siblings.
She noted that economic challenges force parents to neglect their duties to female children.
To bring the girls back to school during their pregnancy, her outfit has rolled out a back-to-school project to ensure such girls receive the best education.
Madam Cann called on the government to support intensifying the importance of girl-child education in coastal communities.
“There are lots of programs in the education system that help schoolchildren, especially with teenage pregnancies. Apart from that, we move, from school to school to do sensitization on equity, equality, and all that. We also have a school-based facilitator for every school, who checks the activities of girl’s clubs in the various schools. This has improved the rates of teenage pregnancy.
In the coastal communities, teenage pregnancy is rampant because of absentee parents. Due to economic hardship, some of the parents have abandoned their wards, in search of greener pastures.
Some of these adolescent girls have to fend for themselves and their younger ones. They end up indulging in prostitution and the like. “
