The Covenant

Hello everyone,

The Kwaman district in Ghana is ground zero of its teenage pregnancy crisis. The average age of teenage girls who get pregnant and drop out of school is 13 years.

While the country grapples to find ways to stem the crisis which has become a national embarrassment, three close friends: Ama, Araba and Efia - who are part of a girls club - make a promise not to get pregnant until they complete school and are ready for marriage. But in a community where poverty is rife, and there’s a breakdown of social systems ; such as family and the law, to protect them from the preying eyes of unscrupulous men, do they stand a chance?

The Convenant is a documentary which explores the lives of teenage girls growing up in a community where very few of them make it past their teens without protruding bellies, looking at the underlining causes and shining the light on the people who are making a difference.

The documentary is part of an effort to bring attention to their struggles with the aim of using a percentage of the films’ revenue towards supporting the teenage mothers and the girls fighting to stay in school. I’m an independent filmmaker with over 15 years of experience who is passionate about highlighting social issues in my community. I live and work in Ghana.

The funds raised from this project will go towards creating a teaser or trailer video which we will be used to apply for documentary grants to help realize the vision of the project. This is a documentary which we estimate will take between six months to a year to complete, hence requiring a bigger pool of funds to bring it to life.

The $1,500 will go towards travel expenses to the district, preliminary interviews of the girls involved and editing those interviews to create an engaging trailer. We have identified a couple of grants we want to submit the trailer to, which should enable us raise an average of $50,000 to produce the entire documentary.

For more information on the topic and why it is urgent we are providing the following links:

1. https://www.myjoyonline.com/694-girls-return-to-school-pregnant-after-covid-19-closure-in-upper-west-region/

2. https://www.myjoyonline.com/teenage-pregnancy-high-in-some-communities-in-upper-east-region/

3. https://www.myjoyonline.com/fida-ghana-demands-prosecution-of-men-who-impregnated-2865-under-aged-girls/

4. https://www.myjoyonline.com/about-450-girls-became-pregnant-during-lockdown/

I would be happy if you could use the [Help by sharing] button to share about my project!