Sarafina, the End Child Marriage Ambassador
Sarafina, 15, lives in Pong-Tamale, a rural area in the Savelugu Municipality within the Northern Region and has been advocating to ending child marriage in her community as an ambassador.
The Junior High School (JHS) graduate became a member of World Vision’s Child parliament when she was in JHS1 and rose through the ranks to become the Speaker of Parliament after serving as a Deputy minority leader. Through her hard work and dedication, both sides of the house unanimously agreed that she led the Child Parliament after her predecessor left for Senior High School.
Sarafina, who is a registered child, lives with her paternal grandmother and two other younger siblings. She recalled, her child hood experience of a broken home motivatedher to encourage young girls in her community to enroll and stay in school in order to have a promising future. This she said contributed to her been chosen by her colleagues to be the Speaker of Parliament.
“Growing up, I felt lonely because I always witnessed my parents fight till they divorced. One day, at age 4, my grandmother came to visit us in Accra and I followed her to Pong Tamale. After some time, I decided not to return to Accra. Although I sometimes felt the absence of my parents, my grandmother gave me all the support I needed and it made me forget all the past and rather made me strong to focus more on my education so that I can become a better person in future to cater for my children” Sarafina recounted.
“My experience as a child from a broken home has taught me to empower girls never to lose hope but have self-worth in order to stay away from men and report any issues of child abuse especially child marriage, to the Child Parliament so that we can take it up with the appropriate authorities.
I see World Vision’s (WV) effort to end child marriage as an issue that needs to be tackled collectively and that is why through the education and empowerment we the child parliamentarians have received from WV, we have been able to rescue a lot of girls from child marriage who are now back in school.
As child parliamentarians, we educate parents on the importance to keep their girl child in school instead of giving them out for marriage. We also investigate cases of child marriage and warn the perpetrators after which we report and refer the case to the Social welfare for action to be taken.”
Sarafina further noted that, although she sometimes opposed when going about her advocacy duties, she is not discouraged. She said, “Sometimes when I go to educate parents, they tell me I am just a little girl and for that matter cannot tell them what to do. Some of my friends also mock me calling me names like ‘Too Known Girl’, but I am not bothered.”
Continuing, Sarafina is of the view that when girls are allowed to engage in sports activities such as football, volley ball, table tennis etc. which is mainly attributed to boys, parents will begin to know the potentials of their girl child and for that matter deter them from giving their young daughters out for marriage.
Sarafina, who wants to become a medical doctor when she grows, described child marriage as the leading cause of violence against children which denies children, especially girls of their childhood development as well as a fulfilling life and needs to be totally eliminated in her community and county as a whole.