By Jerry Azanduna, GNA
Techiman, (Bono East) Nov. 9, GNA – Mr Isaac Nyampong, the Focal Person for the Girls Reproductive Health of the Alliance for Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) says Ante-Natal Care (ANC) records indicates that between 50 to 70 percent of pregnancies recorded in the Bono East Region are teenagers.
He said the statistics showed that girls between the ages of 14 and 15 years attended the ANC, explaining that the ARHR was a non-government organisation (NGO) that worked to promote the health rights of girls.
Speaking at a day’s sensitisation on adolescent reproductive health at Techiman, Mr Nyampong more girls in the region were contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
He said every year over 1,000 girls get pregnant nationwide, describing teenage pregnancy in the country as alarming.
Mr Nyampong called proactive adolescent health education programmes to help bring the situation under control.
He said teenage pregnancy ought to be tackled, saying that the menace could lead to food insecurity, shelter crisis, high unemployment and pressures on schools, health and the general public infrastructure.
Mr Davide Bagonluri Paapa, the Executive Director of the Women Integrated Development Organization, another NGO stressed the need to intensify reproductive health education in schools and in homes.
He advised families to take up the challenge and enlighten their girls on reproductive health issues.
Mr Paapa said his NGO was working closely with the ARHR and other stakeholders to help address teenage pregnancy in the Bono East Region and called on traditional authorities to spearhead the campaign and to protect girls from pregnancies.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Jerry Azanduna