By Francis H. Murray
Save the Children Sierra Leone, a non-governmental organization that seeks solutions to the challenges faced by children has drawn the attention of a cross section of the leadership of the Inter Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRC SL) on the worrying spate of child mirrage and their role in ending it.
Authorities say that the engagement was born out of the worrying data indicating that Sierra Leone is rated 18th among countries with the world’s highest rate of child mirrage, which they say calls for a concerted approach in order to address it.
Data put together by the organization also shows that adolescent pregnancy is the driving force behind child marriage with 13% of girls marrying by the age of 15 while 39% of girls marry by the age of 18.
Explaining the reason behind the engagement, the Advocacy and Communications Director for Save the Children International, Ramatu Jalloh said that the young champions who are the very victims of child marriage decided to engage religious leaders on the negative impacts of child marriage and the role they can play in addressing or ending the problem.
“The key things that the young champions want to put across to their religious leaders is the fact that child mirrage had a negative impact on many girls in Sierra Leone, the fact that the country is the 2nd out of two countries with high child mirrage rates, the fact that with child mirrage more girls are not being educated. And as a result there’s high maternal maternity rate, high protection concerns in our country,” she stated.
She added that quite worrisome of their findings is the fact that government is not putting enough money to address the issue with statistics indicating that 2,000 cases reported to the police in 2020 were sexual offences against girls.
“Even with the discussions going on in the last couple of years around sexual offences and violence against girls, it has remain worryingly high with one statistics indicating that 2,000 cases that were reported to the police were sexual offences against girls and that is a concern. So what we’re saying is that girls need to be protected and child mirrage is one of those protection issues.
She added that because the issue is as serious now than ever before, it should not fall off the radar of government spending, adding that “the more girls are married the more they’re lacking behind in terms of education, the more they’re going to die during child birth and that continues to maintain our high maternity rate, the more sexual violence against girls.”
In her power point presentation, Salmata Davies, one of the child champions said that by leaving the issue of child mirrage and its compounded issues that come along with it unaddressed, means that the Sierra Leonean society is on the verge of making girls feel as though it is a crime to be a woman.
She said: “in the area of health, 1,360/100,000 live births with 40% maternal deaths are among teenage girls. In education, 68% boy’s complete primary school compared to 55% girls with 46% of women who have no education compared 29% of men. In protection, over 60% of girls experienced sexual violence 30% occurring in school, FGM rates is at 86.1% and over 2,000 cases of sexual assault of a child reported to the police annually.’’
She used the occasion to call on all stakeholders to treat the issue with the urgency it deserves and take concrete steps to address it.
Alhaji Murtada Sesay, Vice President of the IRC SL said that child marriage remains one of the many social problems children are faced with which required a more coordinated and structured approach and not an “ad hock or Ninja reaction.”
“Our position is what the law says and what our holy books say. We’re very clear in the Holy Quran as Muslims and the Hadith of the Prophet Mohamed about child mirrage. So what we need to do now as an Inter-Religious Council is to support what the Holy Book says and then we move forward in terms of our national interest also. We don’t want engagements to be ad hock,” he said.
He added “This has been the case in the past and we don’t end up making progress but now if we start off with very clearly defined expectations form both parties then we will monitor progress,” he stated.
In his reaction, Rev Tamba Eric Emerson Mbayo, executive member of the IRC SL and the General Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Sierra Leone said that they in full support of the move, describing it as a “menace” in society that needed to be brought to a logical conclusion.
He added that the agreement reached at pointed out to the need for a memorandum of understanding among all parties from which continuous work and engagement will be done to ensure that they go for a bill in Parliament that addresses the issue.
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