‘Encourage adolescent children to discuss sexual problems’
Parents have been advised to bridge the communication gap between them and their adolescent children so that they would be comfortable to discuss their sexual problems with them.
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The Sompahemaa of the Sunyani Traditional Area, Nana Akosua Akomah, who gave the advice, explained that if that cordiality was not established, adolescents would be compelled to seek wrong information about their sexual problems from their peers, and ruin their lives.
She was speaking at a day’s orientation seminar for selected queenmothers in the Brong Ahafo Region which was organised as part of the implementation of the Ghana Adolescent Reproductive Health (GHARTH) Project.
The GHARTH Project
The project, which is being implemented by a non-governmental organisation, Hope for Future Generation, is aimed at promoting the health of young people by responding to their peculiar health problems that emanate from their low knowledge about their sexuality.
The focus is to ensure the integration of adolescent health and development into health delivery service at all levels.
It had been instituted as an integral part of the reproductive and child health programme of the family health initiatives.
The orientation seminar for the queenmothers in the region was, therefore, to educate them as major stakeholders to enable them to play their traditional roles in the health and development initiatives of adolescents.
Discussions
Discussing the problems affecting the adolescents, the queenmothers asked parents to create room for discussion between them and their adolescents about their sexual reproductive health.
Contributing to the discussion, Nana Akomah asked parents to provide the basic needs of their adolescents, including information about their sexuality instead of only putting fear into them about the implications of early pregnancy.
“If they are equipped to have the needed information about their sexuality, they will be able to protect themselves from temptations that confront them during their adolescent period”, she stated.
“Because we do not talk to them about their reproductive health, they consider their friends as their parents, nurses and doctors”.
Project co-ordinator
For her part, the Project Co-ordinator of GHARTH, Ms Roseline Lodonu, identified poor attitude of health providers, as well as lack of information about reproductive health as some of the factors that pushed the adolescents into teenage pregnancy.
She said it was bad for the society to stigmatise the youth who gathered courage to seek information about issues concerning their sexual reproduction.
Ms Lodonu called on parents, teachers, faith-based leaders, policymakers and opinion leaders in communities to improve their knowledge of sexual reproductive health to enable them to properly counsel the youth to guard against problems associated with adolescence.
She said as part of the project, centres would be established where young people could visit to obtain health information and counselling relevant to their needs and circumstances.
Ms Lodonu called for proper training to assist health service providers and their support staff to have the required knowledge, skills and positive attitudes to provide adolescent and youth-friendly health services efficiently at all health service delivery points.
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