By Bajin D. Pobia
Wa, June 8, GNA – Adolescent girls have been cautioned not to gamble their lives with sex or give it a trial to test their fertilities of childbearing.
Many young girls have had their lives truncated through unsafe abortions and others had their wombs permanently destroyed while several of them exited hastily in their educational pursuance, thereby closing a chapter in their lives, leaving them hopeless.
Mr. Joseph Aniah, a Youth Facilitator at Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) issued the warning at a two-day workshop organised for 20 adolescent girls from five communities in the Jirapa Municipality under the Reproductive Health Education and Services for Young People (RHESY) project.
He told the young girls not to be deceived into thinking that they were different from their peers who were having children and would therefore want to experiment their lives with sex at teen ages.
“Don’t bow to teases from peers to give in to sex and wanting to test your productiveness at a young age”, Mr. Joseph advised
The Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights, a Civil Society Organisation organised the “Adolescent Health Champions” training to empower the girls with essential knowledge, techniques and skills to go into the various communities to help educate their peers on sexual reproductive health issues.
Madam Bernice Gyawu, Programme Officer at Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), said the project was also aimed to provide the girls knowledge on sexual reproductive health and improve their access to information on sexual and reproductive health rights.
It also provided the girls the opportunity to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health issues, link them to health facilities to seek quality healthcare services, addressing reproductive health problems, and make them assertive to stand strong against falling victim to men.
Madam Gyawu appealed to other civil society organisations to complement the efforts of the ARHR in the provision of entrepreneurial skills and other employable training to the girls, whom out of poverty and other Circumstances, are compelled to give in to sex at teen ages.
She said even though the ARHR focus point was to educate adolescent girls, boys and parents were also targeted in its training schemes since parents had substantial influence over their children in the communities.
Mr Braimah Yakubu, Project Coordinator of Harnessing Youthful Talents for Rural Health Rights Development (HAYTAFORD) a local NGO implementing the project in the Jirapa Municipality, said with its interventions, teenage pregnancies which was on the ascendency had reduced considerably.
He said with the provision of adequate information for young girls on sexual reproductive health rights, many girls had been assertive and that had helped to reduce the activities and practices of early marriage, as well as elopement had in the communities.
He said hitherto young girls in the area had challenges when menstruating but because of the project, they were trained to produce their own sanitary pad, using local materials.
“Young girls can now visit health facilities to tell their stories and access quality healthcare services, rather than going to quack doctors to cause abortions, and this has helped to improve on their overall wellbeing”, he said.
The HAYTAFORD is implementing the project in the Jirapa Municipality with financial assistance from the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights.
Topics treated at the workshop included: “Adolescent and Puberty, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Personal Hygiene, Sex and Gender Based Violence, Pregnancy and its related issues including menstruation, Drug and Substance Abuse, Self-esteem and Assertiveness and Peer Pressure and Negative Influence.
GNA