By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, June 21, GNA – Mr Nelson Owusu Ansah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Programmes and Operations, National Youth Authority (NYA), has underscored the need for a proper framework that will enhance access to menstrual hygiene among vulnerable girls.
According to him, when young girls, especially those in poor and rural communities had access to menstrual hygiene materials particularly sanitary pads, it would reduce the burden of poverty, prevent transaction sex, teenage pregnancy, and child marriage.
To this end, he called on the Government and other relevant institutions including the Ghana Revenue Authority to review the 20 per cent luxury tax placed on sanitary pads, to make it affordable and accessible to young girls especially those in rural communities.
Mr Ansah was speaking to the media in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, on the sidelines of a capacity building training workshop on sexual and reproductive health and rights, organised for young people in the Upper East Region by the NYA with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“We are ready to liaise with the revenue collectors and the government team, to be able to fashion out ways that we can target those who are really in need and not necessarily a wholesale abolishment because there are people who buy and buy more for others but there are others who cannot afford in anyway.
“The real cause of this rampant sex and teenage pregnancy is because of poverty and poverty is being recycled now and then and so we are saying that if we want to nip this in the bud, we need to provide some of these little things that look simple but are major drivers that are pushing young people into transactional sex resulting in teenage pregnancy,” he said.
The Deputy CEO noted that young people continued to face sexual and reproductive health challenges which had adversely affected the growth and development of many, with increased teenage pregnancy, child marriage and school drop outs.
It was as result of this, Mr Ansah noted, that the NYA in collaboration with major stakeholders engaged the youth to serve as ambassadors and agents of change in their various communities to ensure that they helped educate their peers on sexual and reproductive health and its related issues.
Mr Francis Takyi-Koranteng, the Upper East Regional Director, NYA, indicated that the region continued to record high teenage pregnancy cases despite the efforts made by various stakeholders in addressing the issues.
He noted that the youth being trained were expected to also train their peers in their districts and communities to help reduce the challenges faced by young people.
Ms Mary Azika, a midwife at the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate, noted that the main cause of teenage pregnancy was unsafe sex and called on parents, traditional and religious authorities to review their stance on the use of contraceptives to help curb teenage pregnancy.
Mr Jaladeen Abdulai, the Upper East Regional Director, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, advised the youth to report cases of defilement, rape and child marriage among other sexual abuses to the law enforcement agencies so perpetrators would be punished, to serve as deterrent to others.
GNA