Help reduce rate of teenage pregnancy — Deputy Minister
The Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo, has urged women, as mothers and sisters in positions of trust, to help reverse the increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy in the country.
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She said there was the urgent need for women to bring the children, especially the girls, back on track so as to arrest the situation.
“The economic demands of the day should not cause us to neglect the children. They are our future,” she said.
Dr Adiku-Heloo was speaking at the official opening of the 2016 Tema/Accra Presbytery Women Ministry rally of the Global Evangelical Church in Accra on the theme: “Thy Kingdom Come, Establishing Women for the Kingdom Business.”
She said women held the key to societal transformation and their well-being should necessarily be of concern to all.
It was in that direction, she said, that the government was putting much effort into passing the Affirmative Action Bill to enhance women’s participation in governance and decision making at all levels.
Dr Adiku-Heloo urged the leadership of the church and the women’s ministry not to relent in their efforts to put up an ultramodern vocational institute that would offer skills training for the youth.
Ambassadors of peace
She urged the women to be ambassadors of peace as the country moved towards the December 7 polls.
In a speech read on behalf of the two presbyteries, Mrs Euphemia Gifty Agbavitor, the Accra Presbytery Leader, said through the women’s ministry, some women were realising their God-given potentials while some had used the skills acquired to earn a living.
She said the objective of the rally was to remind women of the call and duty to win souls for the Kingdom of God, adding that children, spouses and close relations must be brought to the kingdom to save them from eternal suffering.
“If we are mindful and established in the kingdom business, our children will be positively impacted which will affect the church, the nation and the world as a whole,” she said.
On the December 7 polls, Mrs Agbavitor appealed to Ghanaians to be mindful of their utterances and urged the media also to be circumspect in their reportage.
Besides that, she said political campaigns should be issues-based and not personality-focused. She added that political parties should control the utterances and activities of their followers, stressing that,“Ghanaians should be more tolerant in dealing with each other. Our tribal or political differences should not tear us apart”, she advised.