The Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, held the maiden National Kayayei Dialogue meeting in Tamale as part of efforts to clampdown the age-old menace of teenage girls traveling from the north to southern Ghana seeking greener pastures.
Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, the Executive Director of the foundation explained her outfit is out to understand reasons young women will voluntarily undertake such economic activity or be encouraged either by their parents or community members.
She noted the conditions under which these head potters popularly known as Kayayei work is deplorable and appalling and questioned whether any parent or guardian would want the ward to have such experience.
According to the former Minister for Gender, Children and Social, about 1000 girls daily arrive in the big cities such as Kumasi, Techiman, Takoradi and Greater Accra to engage in such trade.
“Currently we all know how deplorable those conditions are. Who would want their child to sleep in a kiosk? Not knowing how they will eat, where to sleep – having to carry load from about 5:00am till about 8:00pm, some of them are doing 14hours a day and they are paid coins; there is no decent wages for them” she lamented.
She further described the phenomenon as modern day slavery, adding the Henry Djaba Foundation is concern about this situation because it is not good for the health and wellbeing of the girls and has the tendency to undermine the future and progress of these girls.
“I have two daughters and I will never dream that anyone of them will do Kayayei. There isn’t enough money in it for you to even sustain your life. A girl goes to Kayayei to get GHS1000 just to buy a university form or because she wants to buy a sewing machine or the parents’ needs cloth or something but is this good enough for the prim of our young girls in the Upper East, Upper West, North East, Northern and Savannah Regions where the majority of the girls are coming from?
She disclosed her foundation in collaboration with UNFPA found out that about 100, 000 young girls were engaged in Kayayei during a head count exercise conducted in 2017.
“And that was just in Accra and Brong Ahafo and I am sure by now the number has increased. The time has come for all of us to take action and say we’ve had enough”
Way forward
The former Minister said the National Kayayei dialogue is a platform for various stakeholders in the Kayayei value-chain to come up with sustainable solutions to address the current problem and also develop policy document which the government can adopt to curb the menace.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the forum, Yoo Naa Abdulai V, Paramount Chief of Savelugu in his submission downplayed the assertions of socio-economic hardship and extreme hunger in the north advanced by a section of the Ghanaian populace, stating these arguments are far-fetched.
The Chief explained most young women and girls who chose to stay in the north in the midst of these purported conditions have made life better for themselves and their families.
Be that as it may, the Yoo Naa said the focus of the national dialogue is to find ways of addressing some of the human rights challenges of these girls, craft attractive alternative sources of livelihood, embark on sensitization of the girls and parents and further take steps to prevent them from traveling south especially those under eighteen (18) years of age.
For her, Mrs Dela Bright Gle, a Programme Analyst at the UNFPA Country Office said the mission of UNFPA is to ensure young people such as the Kayayei realized their full potentials in life.
She indicated these teenagers seeking non-existing greener pastures in the south face with challenes such as child marriages, rape, issues of unwanted pregnancies and therefore added the UNFPA comes in to see to it that some of these issues and sufferings are alleviated.
“So partnering with the Henry Djaba Foundation for the national consultative dialogue to improve the issues of Kayayei in Ghana is one of those efforts that we make nationally to help make sure that young people in Ghana whether Kayayei, Refugees, persons with disability or whatever so that the young people will stay in school, get a job and then they’re able to contribute fullest potential to society” she added.
