Kpone, Dec. 19, GNA – The Cultural Department of the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA) has initiated drama as a major tool to educate adolescents in the area on reproductive issues.
Members of the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Culture Troupe artistically dramatized the causes, and effects of teenage pregnancy to sensitize pupils of St Michal’s School Complex, Brilliant Soul Academy, and Kingdom Stars Academy.
The event was on the theme: “Using culture to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) three targets in Kpone-Katamanso.”
Miss Sandra Boison, KKMA’s Cultural Director told the Ghana News Agency at Kpone that the Department acknowledged the use of cultural elements like drama and music to sensitise pupils in upper primary and Junior High Schools on Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH).
She said drama served as a more effective means to capture the attention of adolescents and impart the needed knowledge.
Miss Boison said it was their aim to use culture to achieve SDG3 with a focus on sexual reproductive health, specifically the effects of teenage pregnancy.
Addressing the pupils, she said SRH targets were included in the United Nations SDGs, and Ghana must achieve this goal by 2030.
She said the municipality needed to do more in that regard as they had realised that teenage pregnancy cases were increasing in the area.
Discussing the drama, she outlined some of the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy, which she said included poor information on sexual reproductive health, peer pressure, sexual assault, poverty, social media influence, and parental neglect.
Some of the effects she said were unsafe abortions, social stigmatisation, high risk of health complications on the teenage mother, such as low birth weight of the unborn child and prolonged labour which were the leading causes of maternal and infant mortality.
Miss Boison added that other effects were the contraction of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), discontinuation of girls’ education, repeated teenage pregnancy, and abject poverty.
She, therefore, encouraged the pupils to choose abstinence at such a tender age and rather concentrate on their education to prepare for their future.
During the sensitization programme, Mr. Zac Abrahams, Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Director of the Non-Formal Education Division, took the opportunity to inform the pupils about the new remedial education programme for Junior High School pupils.
He urged the pupil to inform others about the remedial programme to enable those who needed such assistance to benefit from it.
GNA