Charity said that her parents offered the following piece of practical advice about sex 

with boyfriends: 

They also said although they did not want me to get involved with men, if I should start 

seeing men I should stick to one man so that if I get pregnant he will accept responsibility 

and look after me. I listened to them, so the man I gave birth with was my only boyfriend. 

But when I was coming here, I told him that I was coming to learn a vocation so that I 

could no longer be with him, but he looks after my child. [Charity] 

One participant said that her family enforced the one boyfriend policy as follows: 

They ask me to stick to one man, so if they see me with someone else they warn him to 

stay away from me. [Karen] 

In many cases, the girls' stories about their sexual experiences indicated that their parents 

seemed to accept their early sexual activities. For example, Diana was 14 when she had her first 

sexual experience. She described it and her mother's response as follows: 

He asked me to go to his house with him. When we got there he forced me and slept with 

me. On my return home, I told my mother, but she didn't say much. All she said was that 

since he's my boyfriend, it's okay to sleep with him. [Diana] 

Finally, about a third of the participants interviewed were currently living without the 

supervision of a parent or relative, but were being supervised by an unrelated guardian, usually a 

 madam.  Typically, these girls came from outside the area and had come to Accra to make 

money for themselves and to send home to their families. They reported getting more freedom in 

Accra to interact with boys than they did in their hometowns and that they were not monitored as 

closely as those currently living with relatives. For some, this was welcome. 

My mother was very strict on me having male friends [in my hometown]. But since I 

came to Accra, no one restricts me when it comes to men. I do what I please. [Eve] 

They knew, however, that if they had a child they could not stay at the house and work 

for the madam after the child was born. Thus, although these girls had more sexual freedom, they 

had less choice about terminating or continuing a pregnancy if they became pregnant (see 

below).  

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