Kayayei must avoid teenage pregnancy — Gender Minister

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, has advised female porters (Kayayei) to desist from unprotected sex that can lead to teenage pregnancy.

She said it was not fashionable and easy to be a teenage mother, and that child marriage must also not be encouraged.

Ms Djaba gave the advice in an address when the ministry organised a feast for porters in Accra as part of the celebration of the Mother’s Day. It was dubbed: “2017 - Kayayei Mother’s Day Feast.” The theme for the celebrations of the Mother’s Day was; “Stay Healthy, Live Long.”

Ms Djaba said the ministry was undertaking a number of policy initiatives such as linking women to the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), indicating that 50 per cent of the MASLOC fund had been set aside for strategic interventions to ensure gender equality and women empowerment, to enhance the creation of decent jobs and prosperity.

She asked women and mothers to take advantage of the initiatives, including the free senior high school policy, planting for food and jobs, one district, one factory, and one village one dam, to improve themselves.

The minister entreated mothers to seek regular health care and adopt healthy lifestyles for their children, family, as well as themselves, adding that; “Let all mothers, therefore, adopt healthy lifestyles for long life, because they are wonderful assets of the nation.”

Ms Djaba advised mothers whose daily operations kept them very busy to make quality time for their children irrespective of the fact that society pushed most of them to multitask, and to defy all odds to make ends meet.