Youth Alive undertakes adolescent sexuality project

The districts are Kassena-Nankana East, Kassena-Nankana West, Bolgatanga in the Upper East and the Wa Municipality and Wa East in the Upper West Region.

The project,  which has targeted young people between the ages of 10 and 24, has two main objectives, namely to increase the number of young people accessing reproductive and sexual health services by five per cent  and also to increase the number of young people participating in health care delivery by ten percent in the beneficiary communities.

Speaking at pre-proposal consultative meetings with stakeholders including the youth and members of the selected communities, the Director of Youth Alive Ghana, Madam Agnes Chiravira, said the burning issues affecting the youth as identified by all stakeholders, were sexually transmitted infections and high teenage pregnancy.

The selected districts, she said, reported of an average annual increase in teenage pregnancy of two per cent and pointed out that this was attributed to low awareness among the youth about their sexual and reproductive health rights and their responsibilities.

“Youth Alive brings to this project a cordial working relationship with the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service and other collaborators coupled with enormous goodwill and strong rapport with the communities and traditional authority, all of which enable us to mobilise both human and material resources when necessary to enhance our  work,” she told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Wa.

She was of the view that participation was an educational and empowering process in which the youth must be mobilised, trained and assisted to assume greater responsibilities to identify their health needs, plan, manage, control and access the collective actions necessary for their own health.

“Good health will permit them to lead economically productive and socially useful lives. Poverty and low or lack of education have resulted in a loss of self-esteem. With good health they will be able to take advantage of various interventions to improve their standard of living. Beyond the project period, knowledge and skills gained during the project implementation period can be applied in various spheres of their lives to facilitate a re-construction of their lives so that they can reclaim their self-esteem and dignity,” she added.

Madam Chiravira said Youth Alive Ghana had worked to ensure that the youth who were marginalised and found themselves on the streets, would continue to benefit from the National Health Insurance Scheme and get employment under the National Youth Employment Programme, among others.

She thanked STAR Ghana for its continuous support and said despite the challenges Youth Alive would continue to contribute its quota to national development.

Story by George Folley