By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, March 5, GNA – Managements and workers of community information centres have been encouraged to prioritise issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights to help address challenges facing the growth and development of adolescents.
The Forum for African Women Educationalists Ghana (FAWE Ghana), a Non-Governmental Organisation, which made the call, urged them to develop programmes and content that engaged experts, to educate the public about risky behaviour of adolescents.
That, it said, would help reduce cases of teenage pregnancy, child marriage, domestic abuse, gender-based violence, abuse of emergency contraceptives, transactional sex, and harmful cultural practices among others to achieve gender parity and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Ms Dora Mochiah, the Programmes Manager, FAWE Ghana, made the call on the sidelines of a three-day training workshop on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), organised by FAWE Ghana for workers of eight community information centres in some districts in the Upper East Region.
It is part of a five-year Global Affairs Canada sponsored project dubbed “Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE)” being implemented by a consortium led by Right to Play, WaterAid Ghana, FHI360 and FAWE-GH in the Kassena-Nankana and Builsa North Municipalities, and Bongo and Kassena-Nankana West Districts.
The project, among other things, seeks to advance gender equality through providing access to age-appropriate sexual and reproductive education and gender responsive care for young people, particularly girls and young women, as well as build the capacity of young people to become advocates for their own health and wellbeing.
Ms Mochiah noted that due to the nature and operations of the community information centres, they were able to connect well with the people and added that the training was part of efforts to engage the public at the grassroots level on important issues.
“As part of the advocacy on SRHR and gender equality, we are using radio stations but beyond the radio stations, we think we can use these information centres to reach more people because these centres are mainly within the communities,” she said.
The Programmes Manager explained that apart from playing appropriately developed jingles, the staff would develop programmes and content that educated the public as well as engage experts in the form interview and discussions to explain issues related to SRHR to the public.
Ms Mochiah said for the country to achieve the SDGs, especially goal four and five, which put emphasis on access to quality education and achieving gender equality respectively, there was the need for collective efforts to address issues of teenage pregnancy, child marriage, sexual and gender-based violence among others harmful cultural practices which were still prevalent in the communities.
“We hope these stakeholders will go back and work with other relevant stakeholders such as children, adolescents, parents, chiefs and assemblies to ensure that we continue disseminating information on SRHR and harmful cultural practices,” she added.
Ms Victoria Binnah, a participant from Biu community in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, noted that effective communication between parents and children was key to preventing adolescents from risky behaviour and urged parents to be open to their children particularly the girls.
Mr Solomon Anabila Asampana, another participant and an Assemblyman for Bongo-Kunkua Electoral Area in the Bongo District, noted that teenage pregnancy had contributed to school dropouts in the area and noted that the knowledge acquired through the training would help to educate parents to reduce the problem.
GNA