Child prostitution is beginning to show its ugly head in Tumu in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region as some basic school girls have formed peer groups and engaged in prostitution.
The unfortunate practice which was revealed in a study conducted by Social Initiative for Literacy and Development Programme (SILDEP) said some of the prostitution groups go by names such as “Sexy vampires”, “Awilo”, and “Kampala” with operative slogans like “It is our business and men shall suffer”.
The study also revealed that drivers of heavy duty vehicles who come to Tumu and those transiting to Burkina Faso were the main consumers of the child prostitution services.
Mr. Moses Dramani Luri, Chief Executive Officer of SILDEP revealed this during the celebration of the International Women’s Day at Gwollu in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.
He said the study revealed four major factors including culture, attitude, poverty and information gap and illiteracy as responsible for the practice.
Mr. Luri therefore called on the government to intensify her social intervention programmes including the “one district, one factory”, “one village, one dam”, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP), family planning, civic education and law enforcement among other interventions to mitigate the effect of these social vices.
He also called on the security services, Chiefs and opinion leaders in the area to rise up and act in order to nib the practice in the bud.
The CEO of SILDEP said the International Women’s Day was celebrated to commemorate the contributions of gallant women to the advancement of society across the world.
“Therefore, tackling, gender base violence is a strategic way to advance women’s rights and empowerment in several areas ranging from health, education, work, freedom from violence, and participation in public life”, he said.
He said it was for this reason that SILDEP was implementing the Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA) Project in collaboration with Plan International Ghana in the Upper West Region to sensitise girls and other stakeholders to become conscious of the rights of the girl child and protect them.
He said the five-year project (2016-2020) despite its regional focus had been working extensively in the Wa West ,Sissala East and Sissala West Districts because of the peculiar issues the three districts presented.
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