The five-year project, which is being implemented in two districts namely New Juaben and Akuapem North Districts, is expected to improve the level of girl’s education and reduce teenage pregnancies and its resultant child marriages to the barest minimum by the end of the project.

Mrs Joyce Larnyoh, Country Director of ICDP, in an interview with the GNA, at the end of a three-day training workshop for Champions of Change in Koforidua, indicated that in order to achieve the maximum impact, some influential persons in the operating communities had been picked and empowered to speak on the issues.

She said they have been trained in such a way that they would identify and pick issues that pertained to their respective districts and was detrimental to the girls’ education and empowerment and tackle according to the project goals.

Early on, some of the Community Protection Committee (CPC) and Champions of Change members made up of assembly members, opinion leaders and traditional authorities identified several issues such as wake-keeping and funerals, night clubs and drinking spots as some of the challenges confronting girls’ education in the communities.

They noted that parental neglect was also a factor in the high rates of school drop outs, teenage pregnancies and early child marriages, and assured that they would use their positions to raise awareness for the needed change.