Obaapanyin to serve as role model to the youth
The Obaapanyin of Foase, Madam Akosua Deduah, has expressed concern about the low level of knowledge of the adolescent and the youth of sexual and reproductive health within the community.
Advertisement
As a key counsellor and role model, she has consequently pledged to spearhead activities to ensure that issues such as teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, menstrual hygiene, misconception of family planning methods, sexual abuse, high drop- outs from basic school among other challenges within the community are dealt with.
She was speaking at a day’s outreach by Hope For Future Generations (HFFG), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) at Foase in the Atwima Kwanwoma District in the Ashanti Region.
Community outreach
The community outreach forms part of the implementation of the UKaid-funded Ghana Adolescent Reproductive Health (GHARH) project.
Obaapanyin Deduah explained that she, together with some community leaders and parents, would work assiduously through the GHARH project to ensure that teenage pregnancies, sexual abuse and high school dropout were reduced drastically to enable the youth to realise their potential in life and contribute to the development of their communities.
The GHARH project in the Ashanti Region is an extended project based on the successes that partners, including HFFG chalked up in its three-year implementation in the Brong Ahafo Region with funding from UKaid, through Palladium, an international NGO which serves as a catalyst for change in communities.
The overall goal of the GHARH project is to contribute to reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Ashanti Region by six per cent by September 2017.
Commitment
The Obaapanying, therefore, committed herself to play a leading role towards addressing adolescent and reproductive health challenges in the community through the GHARH project.
The Atwima Kwanwoma District Director of Health, Ms Comfort Suglo, encouraged the girls to stay in school and take good care of themselves so that they did not get pregnant when they were not ready.
The Atwima Kwanwoma School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator, Ms Joyce Opoku Mensah, reminded the adolescents and the youth about the need to keep themselves healthy both physically and mentally so they could benefit from education.
HFFG is a local non-governmental organisation that has since 2001 taken initiatives and formed partnerships which have improved the health, education and socio-economic status of women, children and young people.