By Kadijatu Hayles
Peace Ambassadors in Lungi have on the 20th of December, held one-day dialogue meeting with youths and stakeholders in Lungi at the Saint Joseph’s secondary school Masiola Lungi, on the topic “mitigation of girl child marriage “
According to the manager of the project Abu Bakarr Jalloh, a group of peace ambassadors is a sub-group formed by Focus 1000 to end violence in their communities before and after the June multi-tier elections in Sierra Leone.
Having sustained its intended purpose. He said they introduced the reduction of child marriage in the communities of Sierra Leone.
Alhaji Alia Sesay, one of the facilitators of the dialogue session, explained that child marriage is a crime and needs to be put to an end. He said such would only be achieved with the support of stakeholders and decision-makers in the community.
He added that a girl child has a lot of potential if given the enabling environment. He therefore discouraged the issue of child marriage, which sometimes leads to poverty and lack of proper parenting.
Alpha Janneh an officer from the Family Support Unit at the Lungi Police Division, said the age of consent of every child is eighteen years and below. He called on all parties that are involved in making such marriage a success to disassociate from doing such.
“Parents on the other hand should give proper monitoring to their children and allow them to choose a career that will be worthwhile in society, not everyone will be fortunate to go to the university but learning a trade will go a long way “, Alpha said..
Marian Sesay, a participant said she has learnt a lot about early child marriage and listening to the consequences of giving up one dream adding she is determined today to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse. She said she has always thought that getting married early and giving birth to children before eighteen is a normal thing but this session has given her another idea.
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