Accra Feb. 16, GNA - The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs on Wednesday announced plans to carry out a research on prostitution to find solutions to the problem.

Hajia Alima Mahama, the Sector Minister, said officials from the Ministry including the Deputy Minister, Mr Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu had been interacting with the prostitutes to package an assistance project for them.

The Minister was answering questions when she took her turn to address the weekly "Meet the Press" series, organized by the Ministry of Information.

Hajia Mahama said a lot of research was underway to facilitate the empowerment of women and children.

She said the Ministry carried out HIV/AIDS and female condom sensitisation workshops for more than 2,000 porters (Kayayees) at Agbogbloshie, Tema Station and Mallam Atta Markets in the Accra. Hajia Mahama said the Ministry also held HIV/AIDS awareness programmes for children in all the 10 regions. On the issue of women empowerment, the Minister noted that empowering women was a major key to poverty reduction.

"I believe that as a nation we cannot reduce poverty without empowering our women, especially the rural poor, and we cannot grow in a sustainable manner without investing in our children," Hajia Mahama said She mentioned gender mainstreaming as one challenging task the Ministry had to deal with, saying: "Bringing everybody on board to wear gender lenses in their policy formulation, review and programming is a challenge." Hajia Mahama urged the media to give free airtime and space to facilitate the dissemination of information critical for women and children as part of their social responsibilities.