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The Queenmother of Duori, a suburb of Wa, Pognaa Amamata Mumuni, has blamed the rampant incidence of teenage pregnancy and sexual abuse against children on poor parental control, care and child neglect.  

She said some parents were shirking the responsibilities of protecting their children, especially females, from indulging in some social activities and giving them excessive freedom to stay outside of the home even during odd hours. 

“Most of the children get pregnant because their parents don’t care for them. In our interactions with some of the girls, they say anytime they want to go out they are not prevented, and they return anytime they want.”  

“Whether they eat or not, sleep in the house or not, their parents don’t care.

Some even say men give them money to buy food,” Pognaa Mumuni explained.  

Sensitisation programme
The Queenmother said this in Wa at the weekend during a sensitisation programme for market women and traders at the Wa main market on the effect of child neglect.  

It was organised by the Upper West Regional branch of the She Leads Social Movement (SLSM) in collaboration with the Queen Mothers’ Association in Wa as part of the She Leads project implementation in the region by the Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD-Ghana) in partnership with Plan International Ghana.

The sensitisation programme was also to drum home the need for parents to provide their girl children with basic needs such as sanitary pads to prevent them from seeking those needs from men.

Pognaa Mumuni particularly blamed mothers for putting their female children in harm’s way as some traders left their homes for days in search of money without considering the welfare of their children, which led such children to engage in sexual relationships with men.  

“Some mothers also push their girl children to men because those men give them GH¢20.”  

“They don’t care whether the girls are in school or not.

Their interest is the little money they get from the men, and this happens on the blind side of their husbands,” she observed. 

Good menstrual hygiene
Rufiatu Shaibu, a member of the SLSM, appealed to parents to see childcare as a collective responsibility of both parents.

She stressed the need for parents to educate their children on good menstrual hygiene management practices, especially for first-time menstruating girls.