Accra, Nov 16, GNA – Construction of a one-storey Adolescent Health Centre with a temporary shelter has commenced in the La Nkwantanang Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.
It is part of efforts to reduce the adverse consequences of sexual behaviour and improve the quality of sexual relationships of young people in the Municipality.
The construction is funded under the District Development Fund Project of the Municipal Assembly at the cost of GHS530, 000.00.
The facility, which is expected to be completed in four months, will have a holding centre and nurse’s insight for missing children as well as a crèche for education purposes.
It is also designed to have a consulting room, counselling room; clinic reception; Pharmacy room, Family Planning and Social Welfare room, in addition to a Laboratory; four washrooms and an Antiretroviral therapy room.
The La Nkwantanang Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs Jennifer Dede Adjabeng,
cutting the sod for the project, noted that La Nkwantanang had a very huge youthful population who showed both good and bad social behaviours, saying, the issues of HIV/AIDS and other sexually related diseases among them were worrying.
“The LaNMMA has a very huge youthful population of both good and bad vices which comes along with youthful population with a few being teenage pregnancy, adolescent molestation, HIV/AIDS as very worrying trend especially with the HIV/AIDS and other sexually related diseases,” she stressed.
Mrs Adjabeng said the facility was urgently needed to counsel teenagers, especially at a time most of them had a difficulty sharing their experiences with teachers, parents and guidance.
Instead, they share those experiences with their friends, and that could lead to peer influence and pressure to engage in social vices.
She said the centre would help address that situation, stating, “The facility will have well-trained counsellors that are going to be helping the young people most of whom who end up sharing their problems with molesters.”
She was hopeful that the new unit would help health professionals working there to deliver quality health care to the target group.
Dr Mrs Priscilla Anima Poku, the Municipal Health Director of the LaNMMA, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the construction of the centre was “welcoming news”.
“From 2019 to 2021 from January to June a total of 662 antenatal Mother registration had been recorded by the Municipal Health Directorate among youth between the ages of 10 to 19 years,” she said.
GNA