‘Create family size you can cater for’

A member of staff of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Accra, Mr Abass Braimah, has charged men to create family sizes they could easily cater for to avoid raising irresponsible children in society.

He explained that parents had the task of supporting their wards physically, psychologically and mentally and, therefore, would need to have the right number of children they could care for in their homes.

He said that even though some religions permitted men to marry more than one woman, the same God would hold every man who was unable to cater for his children responsible for producing more children he could contain.

Mr Braimah was speaking at the National launch of the Child Marriage Campaign at Dondoli in the Upper West Region. The campaign which was at the behest of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) with support from the UNFPA sought to enhance mechanisms for reporting child marriage and other abuse cases against children to the appropriate authorities for redress.

“As a Muslim, even though I am entitled to more than a wife, my busy schedule at work will not enable me cater for many children than I have at the moment; and it is not just about money but being able to thoroughly monitor and discipline them so that they grow up as responsible adults”, he said.

Mr. Braimah said that many children these days grew up in families where some parents were not aware of their daily movement as a result of raising money to cater for the home stressing that it was advisable to stick to a smaller family size.

“Sometimes social vices among children occur when a man marries more than one woman and has more children he can not cater for that is why the Holy Quran enjoins men to only go in for those additional wives when they are sure they would be able to treat all of them equal with love and do justice to each of them”, he said.

He emphasised that having a sizeable number of children helped to better care for their needs and ensure that they were properly raised.

“With a small family size, you can easily teach the children your religion, how to make supplication and how to even take care of their personal hygiene and remain responsible”, he said.

Touching on the issue of child marriage, Mr Braimah stated that when people gave birth to a lot of children than they could cater for in the midst of extreme poverty, the tendency of giving some of the girls out for early marriage was high.

He again said that because the children were many and were not properly catered for, some of them could indulge in early sex for money to purchase their basic needs or simply follow bad friends to live promiscuous life which could result in teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Mr Braimah advised men to live within their means and create family sizes they could cater for, not just financially but psychologically and emotionally as well.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Dondoli