JSS pupil asks for help

Tema, Sept. 12, GNA- A 14-year-old former Junior Secondary School (JSS) pupil, has made an a appeal to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and philanthropists to give her financial assistance to enable her to further her education.

The assistance would enable Khadija Malik, a former student of the TI Ahmadiyya Basic School in Tema, to continue her education at the Senior Secondary School (SSS).

The appeal was contained in a statement issued on her behalf by the Tema Police Public Relations Unit, and signed by Inspector Yaw Nketia-Yeboah, officer-in-charge.

The statement said Khadija, who lost her father during her infancy, became a victim of compulsion of marriage, when she visited her elder sister, Fati Malik, in the Togolese capital of Lome in December last year.

The statement said without Khadija's knowledge, Fati conspired with some other family members to give her in marriage to one Hammah, a businessman in Lome, Togo.

It said Khadija did not accept the marriage proposal, and so in February this year, she managed to escape from Lome to Tema. The statement said two relatives, Humu Awudu and Adisa Malik traced Khadija to Ghana, with the aim of taking her back to Togo, but Khadija refused to accompany them to Togo.

It stated that on February 25, Khadija reported the matter to the Tema branch of the Women and Juvenile Unit, but Humu and Adisa escaped. The statement said Khadija passed her final examinations with aggregate 15, and would want NGOs and well-meaning Ghanaians to come to her aid.