Ho, Aug 01, GNA – Madam Victoria Kpelly, Acting Director of Health Services, Ho Municipal, has underscored the need to educate young people on their reproductive health.
She said such education was paramount as it would provide them with the requisite knowledge for them to take proper care of their reproductive organs, making them “hygienically clean.”
Madam Kpelly was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on a side line of a stakeholder consultation meeting on reproductive health education for young people, organised by Savana Signatures, a Non-Governmental Organization in Ho.
The stakeholders were drawn from the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, Non-Governmental Organizations, Religious organizations and Traditional authorities as well as the National Commission for Civic Education.
Madam Kpelly said due to lack of knowledge on reproductive health, some young people indulged in acts which affected their reproductive systems, and therefore called on society to pay particular attention to reproductive health issues of young people.
She said it was necessary for the nation to place premium on the reproductive health education of young people and tackle any issue affecting adolescents appropriately to make them healthy and productive as the future leaders of the country.
The Director said though the country did well regarding policies on reproductive health rights of young people, there was disconnection with implementation of such policies.
Madam Kpelly entreated families to take key interest in their children’s development and formative years in order not to truncate their growth processes.
Mr Richard Bonny, Project Officer at Savana Signatures stressed the need for a well-designed programme tailored at enhancing reproductive health education of young people in the country to avoid indulging in acts that would endanger their reproductive systems.
He said teenage pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections would reduce to the barest minimum, if adolescents were well educated on their reproductive health rights.
He called on parents to be abreast with adolescent reproductive health rights to impart to young adolescents to avoid going to seek such information from their peers.
Mr Bonny urged parents to build good interpersonal relations and communication between them and their adolescents to create a two-way channels of understanding each other.
Meanwhile, a similar programme was also held for stakeholders in the Northern region.
GNA