STAKEHOLDERS FORUM ON ADOLESCENT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH HELD AT BECHEM

Futures Group (Europe), a Non Governmental Organization based in the United Kingdom, in conjunction with the Tano South District Assembly with its implementation Partners ( IPs) has held a Stakeholders Forum for sixty (60) participants drawn from communities in the Tano South District on Adolescent Reproductive Health (ASRH) at Bechem.

             

A section of participants and resource persons at the forum

In an opening address, the focal person on ASRH, Mrs. Isahaka Fatimatu said the forum which is an advocacy event was aimed to sensitize and advocate stakeholders support for adolescent health improvement intervention and curb exposure o adolescents to alcoholism, pornography, illegal abortion, drug abuse and other vices that affect adolescents and youth in the District.

                                          

Mrs. Isahaka Fatimatu deliving her opening remarks

Mrs Fatimatu entreated participants to endeavor to grasp all what would be told there since they would be in the forefront of advocating and sensitizing the public on the topic and thanked them for honoring the invitation.

Speaking on social vices of adolescents in the District, the District Police Commander, DSP Emmanuel Baah retaliated that the development of any nation stands on the training of its children and there is the need to give proper upbringing of our children.

DSP Emmanuel Baah said some of the major crimes in the District amongst the youth include defilement, stealing and gambling. He said some of the children in the course of using the computer learn how to communicate with people abroad which later turns to defrauding those people.

                                 

DSP Baah in his presentation at the forum

DSP Baah said stealing among the youth requires to be sent to court for prosecution and sentence but when such short sentences are imposed on them; it becomes a record on the adolescent that the adolescent is a criminal and this record goes a long way to ruin the future career of the person as all these in effect would turn to retard progress and development and also lamented on the spate of teenage pregnancies which has cropped up in our schools.

DSP Baah said it is not the number of cases or people the police sent to court for prosecution and sentence that shows the police is working but rolling up programmes to educate the people to be mindful of their civic responsibilities as the police would do their best to curb all these criminal activities engaged in by our adolescents but would need the help of the people in reporting all cases since the police would not be able to track down all criminal activities and also try to give proper training to our children and teach them to be creative.

A resource person, Madam Magaret Aboligu who is a Deputy Director of Nursing Service of the Tano South District Health Directorate on the key issues and problems on adolescent sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) said most of the work on related issues on adolescent reproductive health rest largely on the Ministry of Health but lack of funds have hampered the work and said as participants are key Stakeholders, much would depend on them in propagating the issues and problems on adolescent reproductive health and described who an adolescent is and said these group constitute 21% of the District’s population of 85,000.

                                  

Madam Aboligu specking at the forum

Madam Aboligu, said a number of teenage pregnancies experienced by our adolescents are due to peer influence and when such an occurrence happens, the girls are tempted to abort it due to been mocked at by friends. She said the District experienced 221 related teenage pregnancies in the first half of 2014 out of which 102 criminal abortions and 4 deaths were recorded and all these came about due to the pornographic pictures our children watch as a 12 year old boy can impregnate a female.

She said Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are also common with our adolescent since these are derived from the unsafe sex they practice and a factor which makes a child to go in for sex is partly blamed on the inability of the girl to be able to come by some basic needs required by her which leads to her resorting to taking a boyfriend to be able to come by those needs.

A Deputy Director of Education, Madam Irene B. Asare of the Tano South District Education office in another presentation, lamented on how teenage pregnancies is gaining root in our communities and cited an example of how a pupil who was pregnant during a basic school certificate examination had to leave the examination hall to go and sleep for a period before coming back to continue.

Madam Asare said training of the child cannot be the sole responsibility of the teacher as well as the waywardness of the child cannot be blamed on the teacher since the children spend most of their time in the house and it is the parents who are to counsel their children on the implications of some vices such as teenage pregnancy.

                                    

Madam Asare addressing participants at the forum

Madam Asare said some of the children copy from friends and it is the parents who should watch who their child’s friend is and said factors like broken homes, multiple marriage and unplanned family are some of the factors which brings about bad behaviors such as teenage pregnancy among our children and cautioned that there is the need to wait for the time of marriage to reach and also be mindful of our children.

Madam Asare said Future Group has trained people to go round our schools to educate our people on Adolescent Reproductive Health and this she said would go a long way to inculcate into the minds of our adolescents the sense of reproductive health.

The District Coordinating Director of the Tano South District Assembly, Mr. Hayford Kyereh who chaired the forum commended Future Group (UK) and its partners for bringing such a project to the Brong Ahafo Region which is of a 3 year period.

                                 

The District Coordinating Director of the Tano South District Assembly, Mr. Hayford Kyereh addressing the forum

He said the project which is aimed at educating and training girls on teenage pregnancy would go a long way to help reduce if not to eradicate this menace and lamented on how 25 teenage pregnancies was recorded in the District during the 2014 B.E.C.E. examination in the Tano South District and called on parents and all Stakeholders to help reduce teenage pregnancies in the District.