On Thurdsay, March 13th, I went to a school in Old Fadama, to help present to a class a section on child marriage with two other volunteers. In Ghana, 25% of all marriages are child marriages and in the northern area where it is more moslem than christian and it's very poor, the number gets over 50%. The population of Old Fadama is primarily from the north, where people come to Accra with hopes of jobs. Child marriages reflect poverty and found in all the poorest nations. In general, families view girls as burdens. Marriages are arranged and often a bridge price is paid, particularly for the youngest. I presume that older men who pay the bride price view the girls as slaves.
In Ghana, it costs money to attend school, for school fees, uniforms and books. The very poorest cannot send their kids to school. As you can imagine, the school we visited in Old Fadama has the look of a school run on a shoestring budget. The interior is nothing more than cinderblock walls and everything is unfinished. There is no glass in the windows or doors in doorways.
We walked in from the street (alley) and the first floor is crowded with the youngest kids in classrooms that separated by half walls. The older kids are upstairs and it is lunch time, so it feels chaotic and yet there is a certain order to everything. Somehow the kids all have received lunch and they clean up after themselves when they finish, all without any adult telling them what to do. In fact, I see teachers, but I do not hear any adult voices.
We wait for lunch to finish and then we enter a classroom with what appears to be 10 to 13 year olds. We begin to make a presentation by talking and although we only reference child marriage as one where the bride is under 18, the kids are referring to 10 year old brides. There is a din of noise as all classes are basically open to each other. It seems hard to talk over the noise, so I open it up to discussion by asking why they think Ghana has outlawed marriage for girls under 18. We get very good answers. Kids are paying attention.
We then break up the class into 3 groups and have each write on a small poster reasons why child marriage is wrong. Then each group presents their posters. It seems to all go well. And now for the pictures:
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| Waiting for lunch to finish, The little boy wander upstairs. An adult is keeping watch. |
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| The upstairs hallway with our classroom on the left. Another is on the right and has no window. |
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| This shows the style of construction. |
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| Heading downstairs. The youngest were congregated here. And yes, the kid on right is naked. |
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| The younger classes shot from the stairs |
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| The view when entering from the street. |
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