By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey
Accra, Sept.26, GNA – Youth for Health (Y4H), a project which seeks to increase and sustain access to reproductive choices for girls and young women in rural and hard-to-reach areas, has been
The three-year initiative, co-funded by the European Union, seeks to expand access to life-changing adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights.
The project is focused on reaching the poorest, most marginalized adolescent girls and those living with disabilities in remote areas in Ghana. It is also being implemented in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia.
In Ghana, the Marie Stopes International Reproductive Choices Ghana (MSIG) and the Youth Advocates Ghana are the consortium partners working closely with the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, and other key partners in the implementation of the project.
Mr. Timothy Dolan, Team Leader, Macroeconomic and Trade – European Union (EU) Delegation to Ghana said the Y4H project which begun in July 2023 had already provided 16,500 reproductive choice consultations, helping to avert more than 5,000 teenage pregnancies and 2,000 teenage maternal deaths.
He said in the Northern and Upper-East Regions for instance, MSI Ghana and the Ghana Health Service were supporting 40 public health facilities to provide adolescent-friendly, stigma-free SRHR information and services.
Mr. Dolan said as part of the project, Youth Advocates Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), was working with civil society organizations and key government stakeholders, to implement a reproductive health education pilot for in-and-out of school adolescents.
This, he said, would contribute to awareness raising and policy dialogue on the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) of vulnerable adolescents.
He said currently, several youth consultations were ongoing across the country until the end of the year to develop and strengthen the partnership between the EU and youth organizations across Ghana.
Mr. George Akanlu, Country Director of MSIG, said the results from the project so far had shown that Y4H was successfully reaching people who had previously been unable to access care.
“For example, the project has reached 13 people living in poverty, it has also supported the inclusion of medical sign language in Ghana Health Service’s training guidelines for health
workers, which means that more people with hearing impairments will receive quality healthcare services,” he said.
He said empowering adolescents with the right information and access to sexual and reproductive health services was not just a healthcare imperative, but a social and economic one too, paving the way for a more informed and healthier generation.
Mr Anklu said as the project entered its second year, partners would continue to work together to build on the achievements and reach as many Ghanaian adolescents as possible.
GNA