By Samuel Akumatey
Adidome (V/R), Dec. 16, GNA – The Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) has provided soft skills for about 20 adolescent girls in Adidome in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region.
The girls, members of an adolescent club run by Sisters Club, a non-government organisation, were taught to produce and package liquid soap.
The Adidome area until recent years was among districts with the highest rates of teen pregnancy and marriages, a situation that is being transformed with the help of stakeholders including state agencies and international non-profit organisations such as the PPAG.
The club provides a nest for young ladies fleeing the calls of sexual predators, and Christopher Makam, PPAG Field Officer in the District said the mini livelihood empowerment initiative would help provide some financial outlet for basic needs.
He said daily life sustainability remained a challenge for the girls.
“The mini livelihood skills training is targeted to help adolescent girls get equipped economically and will support their basic needs and help ensure girls lived independent of predators,” Mr. Makam said.
The NGO has over the period held such training for girls and teen mothers in the district, and Mr. Makam said support from other organisations would help sustain its activities.
Mawutor, who is 20 years old, told the GNA she hoped to support herself and to realise her entrepreneurial dreams through the training.
Christine, a beneficiary of an earlier training programme, spoke of how it helped her gain financial independence, and she would need some more support to pursue the production of doughnuts in which she had been trained.
Other ladies spoke of the benefits of joining the Club, and said their transformation encouraged peers to join.
The young ladies, however shared with the GNA how the current economic downturn affected their livelihoods and said the cost of sanitary materials threatened their assertiveness against invading men.
Mr. Makam said stakeholders should consider the plight of adolescent girls during the times and promised that the production of reusable sanitary pads would be taught to the girls as part of the livelihood empowerment drive.
The PPAG operates in six communities in the Tongu areas, and for the past five years has been seeking to enhance behavioral change towards sexual and reproductive health and rights through the implementation of a UNFPA programme.
GNA