High adolescent reproduction health problems in B/A
Adolescents in Ghana face a number of serious reproductive health risks ranging from unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS.
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These reproductive health problems do not only have an immediate impact on the lives and well-being of young people, but also contribute to long-term pattern of high infertility, poverty, dependency and poor socio-economic development.
Teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, high school dropout rates among adolescents are all significant features of the Brong Ahafo Region.
It is in recognition of the extent of adolescent health problems in the region that Palladium Group, with funding from UKaid, has initiated a comprehensive programme to help address young people’s needs for reproductive health information, counselling and services.
GHARH Project
The Ghana Adolescent Reproductive Health (GHARH) Project is designed to accommodate different players with varying expertise to serve all the 27 administrative districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The project seeks to sensitise adolescents in the region to their reproductive health, increase the provision of reproductive health services to adolescents and ultimately promote a positive change in behaviour in adolescents.
It also aims at encouraging adolescents in the region to change certain behaviour and attitudes that pose health risks to their survival.
ISRAD
The Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRAD), a local non-governmental organisation, is one of the entities implementing this project in the region.
ISRAD, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has organised stakeholder meetings in Asutifi North and South, Asunafo North and South and Tano North and South, where it is operating.
In all, 347 religious leaders, 90 queen mothers and 134 other stakeholders were sensitised to enable them to know their roles in efforts to address problems facing adolescents in the region.
In one such meeting at Kukuom in the Asunafo South District, the Project Coordinator for ISRAD, Mr Abdul-Majeed Ayebire, called on the queen mother and religious leaders to make themselves available for GHARH programmes to enable them to have the requisite knowledge to solve health problems confronting the adolescents.
Writer’s email:emmanuel.gyamerah@ graphi
