By Daniel Agbesi Latsu
Yadzo (O/R), Nov. 16, GNA – Iseguri Initiative, a Kadjebi-based Non-Governmental Organisation, has engaged residents and students of Yadzo D/A Junior High School, especially young girls, on the effects of teenage pregnancy.
The advocacy seeks to end teenage pregnancy in Cocoa growing communities in the Kadjebi District.
Speaking at the programme at Yadzo, a farming community in the Kadjebi District of the Oti Region, Mr Raymond Senanu Buami, Project Coordinator, Iseguri Initiative, said teenage pregnancy according to statistics from health facilities in the district is on the ascendancy, hence the engagement to educate the residents on the act.
He said the effects of teenage pregnancy could be quite devastating and that it could have health risks, emotional, social and financial consequences on the victims.
The Project Co-ordinator said Ahamansu, Dodi-Papase, Kponkpa, Todome, Asato, Gyamonome, among other communities in the Kadjebi district would benefit from the project.
Mr Buami advised parents to take good care of their children, especially the girl-child for their future benefit.
Mr Ngyebekye Nardi Kofi, in-Charge of Radiology Unit at the St. Mary Theresa Catholic Hospital, Dodi-Papase, advised mothers to desist from giving concoction to their pregnant girls to abort their pregnancies.
He said the act was illegal and had devastating and even life-threating effects on the girls.
Mr Ngyebekye said medical complications associated with teenage pregnancy; including low birth weight, premature birth, placenta issues, cesarean section, infant mortality and maternal mortality.
He said the adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to a range of sexual and reproductive health consequences such as pelvic inflammatory diseases, hepatitis B and sexually transmitted infections like HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea and syphilis.
Mr Ngyebekye, who is also a member of Iseguri Initiative, emphasized the need for reproductive and sexual health education for young people to help curb the problem.
Madam Korsitse Adeli, a participant in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the education was appropriate and called for more of such engagements.
She appealed to mothers whose girl-child got pregnant not to abandon them but accept them whole-heartedly and allowed them to go back-to-school after child delivery.
The participants identified poverty, poor parental care, peer influence, technology as some of the factors causing teenage pregnancy in the district.
GNA