Correspondence from Eastern Region
Read full articleStories of single parents, particularly women taking up the sole responsibility of ensuring the upkeep of their children have been described as worrisome by many.
Most of them have been forced to take up these responsibilities after the men who impregnated them denied responsibility, leaving them to their fate.
Consequently, many of them in the process, struggle to give their children a befitting life and future.
Some of these young women shared their stories with GhanaWeb.
One of them, 24-year-old Adwoa Addobea is a single mother of four children aged between 7 years and three months old.
Her plight began when she first got pregnant for a man who denied responsibility when she informed him, not even the involvement of her mother could change his mind to accept the pregnancy.
Adobea said she together with her mother have been forced to take up full responsibility of the child over the years through their kenkey business at Adjena in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region.
She met another man with whom she had two children. She said he took responsibility of the upkeep of the children until he stopped at a point without any tangible reasons, adding that all efforts to get him to fulfill his parental responsibilities have proven futile.
The plights of the 24-year-old continued with yet another man denying the responsibility for her fourth child.
Asked what reasons these men give for not looking after their children, Adobea responded, “They don’t give any tangible reason and I will not force them to look after their children.”
She stressed that she will not accept them if they showed up in future to claim their children or offer them any support.
On how difficult it has been looking after her children without the support of her baby daddies, she said “the problems are numerous. I have to fall on my mother for all needs of the kids including medical needs, all from her business. It has not been easy.”
She said she has learnt a lot and hence resolved not to date any man again.
She was hopeful however that she and her mother will bring up the children and give them a bright future.
The young woman advised other young girls not to despair when men deny responsibility of their pregnancy: “As a young girl, if you get pregnant for a man and he denies responsibility, don’t despair, strive hard and look after that child and they’ll become responsible adults.”
Adobea has ruled out reporting any man to the DOVVSU or Department of Social Welfare saying they’re free to go if they’re not ready to support their children.
For 40-year-old Rebecca Amponsah, she has been forced to take up the parental responsibilities of her year-and-a-half-old grand-daughter.
This became necessary three months ago after her 17-year-old step-daughter who couldn’t name the father of her daughter abandoned her child in the community.
The teenage mother who later called her family from her new location explained to her parents that she abandoned her daughter because she couldn’t fend for her.
Narrating how it happened, Madam Adobea said, “She (teenage mother) was facing some financial difficulties and she didn’t inform us before leaving. She abandoned her daughter with a lady with whom she was living and she brought the child to us.”
36-year-old Adwoa Serwaah, a single mother of six children aged between 19 and two years, also told GhanaWeb that she was forced to become a single parent after the father of her children abandoned her.
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Oheneyere Nana Nyarkoa Ayimedu Brempong III is the wife of the Mankrado of Adjena. The couple runs a Foundation, the Ayimedu Foundation which focuses on early childhood marriage, human trafficking as well as widows and the aged.
She attributed the single parenting situation to hardships being faced by most girls. Nana Nyarkoa explained: “It all boils down to hardships because it’ll surprise you that somebody can get pregnant for just five cedis because there’s nothing to do here…and because things are hard, they can’t even use protection and they’ll end up having a baby.”
To this end, Nana Nyarkoa believes extending assistance to single mothers is another noble idea. She told GhanaWeb that single mothers need assistance and she, as part of her plans for them would enroll a number of them in apprenticeship programmes to acquire skills to enable them fend for themselves and their children.
“I want to channel my energy to single parents who are suffering. There are some people, daily bread is even difficult for them so those who are not doing anything I want to put them in trading,” she said.
She called for a system to be rolled out to support single parents in distress empower them to bring up their children.
The Oheneyere encouraged the youth to avoid unprotected sex to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
Through her ‘Ode Edidi’ charity event, Oheneyere Nana Nyarkoa Ayimedu Brempong III on Friday, 9th December fed the aged, widows, and other members of the community.
Kontihene of Adjena-Tafoman, Nana Ayimedu Brempong III described the situation of single parenting as a concern to traditional leadership, adding that traditional leaders must assist in whatever way they can to address the problem and victims.
He suggested that cultural practices such as Dipo and Bragoro be used to educate girls on how to keep themselves sacrosanct.
“We have to incorporate our cultural practices...that will send signals by way of how to keep yourself as a young person,” said the traditional leader.
Queenmother of Aburi-Agyemanti in the Eastern Region, Awo Yaa Otwiwaa I also described the issue of single parenting as a major problem where the intervention of queen mothers is essential to address it as there was the risk of more children being born in this manner.
To address the problem, she called for the prosecution of men who deny pregnancies they are responsible for and called on the youth to stay away from pre-marital sex to avoid situations of single parenting.
Meanwhile, some men interviewed attributed the situation of men denying pregnancies to suspicions of cheating and promiscuity by some of the women they date.