By Evans Worlanyo Ameamu
Anloga (V/R), Oct. 5, GNA-Anloga District teachers have defeated Assembly Football Club 4-3 on penalties to win a football match organised to promote adolescent health, gender equity and the prevention of gender-based violence by National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Volta Region.
The two sides were level at 1-1 after regulation time before the teachers held their nerve in the shootout to lift the cup.
The Anloga office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) organised the match with support from Global Affairs Canada and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The match was played at Anlo Awomefia II park, where students, parents and community members gathered and received health and rights messages as part of the programme.
Torgbui Hatsu III, the Anloga NCCE Director, speaking at the programme, urged the youth and parents to help promote the initiative by spreading its messages in their homes, schools, and communities.
“Adolescent health and the fight against gender-based violence are shared responsibilities; we thank the sponsors and both teams for their sportsmanship and corporations,” he said.
Mr Sedudzi Gborgblorvor, the Anloga District Adolescent Coordinator, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said teenage pregnancy in the district stood at 17.4 per cent in the first half of 2025, well above the 11.5 per cent target, a figure he said had risen from 13.5 per cent in 2023 and 14.0 per cent in 2024.
He explained that splitting in sub-district, Anloga township recorded 18.2 per cent, Anyanui 18.0 per cent, Shime 17.5 per cent, and Tegbi 15.9 per cent.
Mr Gborgblorvor listed parental neglect, ignorance, poverty, peer pressure, early marriage, drug abuse and sexual coercion among the causes and stated that teenage mothers, faced anaemia, high blood pressure, premature labour and heavy bleeding, while their babies’ risk low birth weight while many girls also drop out of school or turn to unsafe abortion.
“On abortion, adolescents may face serious physical risks, including infection that can affect future fertility, heavy bleeding, injury to the cervix and incomplete abortion that may need further treatment. They are also more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, guilt, and isolation, especially if they were pressured or lacked support.”
Mr Gborgblorvor stressed that sexually transmitted infections (STIs), spread mostly through unprotected sex but also through mother-to-child transmission, unsafe blood transfusion and the sharing of infected needles with infections such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis, HIV, Hepatitis B and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
The warning signs he said included unusual discharge, genital sores or warts, painful urination and lower abdominal pain which when left untreated, STIs could cause infertility, ectopic pregnancy and cervical cancer, and can harm unborn babies and could also make it easier to contract HIV and urged participants to visit a health worker at the first sign of symptoms.
He advised the participants to provide sex education to adolescent before puberty, encourage abstinence, ensure sexually active adolescents to use contraception, and strengthen parental guidance as well as consistent condom use, faithfulness to one’s partner, HIV counselling and testing, and avoiding sharing sharp instruments.
On gender-based violence, he cited estimates that one in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, and a 2022 UN Women report that one in four Ghanaian women has suffered such violence from an intimate partner, and reminded that the public that Domestic Violence Act, the Criminal Offences Act and the Human Trafficking Act protect survivors, who could access medical care, counselling and legal support.
Some participants who spoke to the GNA after the programme expressed satisfaction about the initiatives and called on the individual companies and organisations to support more education in the subsequent years.
The football match also ended with the presentation of medals, branded T-shirts, and a trophy to the participating teams, as they pledged to support efforts toward healthier, safer, and more equitable communities in the Anloga District.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Linda Asante Agyei