The National Population Council (NPC) has held a meeting with partners in Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) programming to discuss and share ideas on enhancing sexual and reproductive health services in the country.
The quarterly meeting, held in Accra last Wednesday, brought together about 30 government and non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations involved in ARH programmes and activities.
Adolescent corners
In a presentation, a researcher at the Kintampo Health Research Centre, Dr Yeetey Enuameh, noted that the rate at which adolescents in the country were giving birth remained high in the country, adding that 60 out of every 1,000 women who gave birth in the country were adolescents.
He said there was the need for awareness creation in the communities since most people believed it was against the cultural beliefs to talk about ARH, adding that adolescent pregnancies were associated with higher maternal and infant complications, hence the need for the creation of ARH corners at health centres in the communities to improve sexual reproductive health education.
Adolescent corners are youth friendly centres attached to health facilities to offer affordable, accessible and friendly sexual health services to the youth for them to make informed decisions about their sexuality.
Dr Enuameh indicated that since females constituted more than 51 per cent of the Ghanaian population, there was the need to step up strategies to keep young girls in school as in the case of their male counterparts.
Harmonizing information
The acting Executive Director of the National Population Council, Ms Marian Kpakpah, said the quarterly meeting of the partners in ARH programming, was part of a coordinating effort for participants to share ideas and experiences to improve ARH programming in the country.
She said there was the need to complement the various efforts of each ARH partner and improve sexual reproductive health education and also harmonise information gathered from their respective researches and activities to avoid misinformation and waste of resources.
Ms Kpakpah also advised parents and guardians to be receptive to their children and wards and discuss sex-related issues with them to ensure that they received education on such issues.
Participants in the meeting called on traditional and religious leaders to create awareness of adolescent corners or centre’s to help reduce the stigmatization attached to them.
They said stigmatization of the ARH corners at health centres in the communities prevented most adolescents from utilizing these facilities to acquire knowledge on ARH issues.
