NGO wants condom use promoted in basic schools

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jr., has appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to review its policy against condom use promotion at both basic and secondary cycle institutions.

Mr. Ahenu Jr., who made the appeal in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, noted that most students at those levels were not just sexually active, but had already started indulging in sexual intercourse, and therefore, needed to be advised against unprotected sex.

As a policy, the Ghana Education Service does not encourage condom use promotion in the basic and second cycle institutions in the country. Condom use promotional activities include education on condom use, as well as condom distribution.

Mr. Ahenu Jr. argued that the number of pregnant students who sit for the Basic Entrance Certificate Examination (BECE) and West Africa Senior Secondary Examination (WASSCE) every year, as well as those who become pregnant and drop out from school due to stigmatisation, attest to the fact that the students at those levels had been indulging in sexual intercourse, and must be encouraged to use condoms.

He suggested that the GES could review the policy, such that condom use promotion could be allowed from, at least, the upper primary level, through junior high to the senior high school level, and done concurrently with abstinence promotion.

According to him, promoting condom use at basic and second cycle institutions in the country would not only prevent unwanted premature pregnancy among students, but also protect the students from contracting HIV and AIDS, as well as other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).

Meanwhile, the GLOMEF, in collaboration with the Health Foundation Ghana, has started implementing a Ghana AIDS Commission's funded programme dubbed Multi-Sectoral HIV and AIDS Programme (M-SHAP) in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region.

'M-SHAP 2010 Behavioral Change Communication and Prevention for HIV/AIDS' is a component of the Ghana AIDS Commission's decentralised response to addressing the HIV prevalence in the country.

Carved out of one of the thematic areas of the second National Strategic Framework (NSFII, 2006-2010), the programme seeks to use behavioural change communication strategies aimed at reducing HIV prevalence, particularly, new infection of HIV in the district.

To achieve this objective, a number of activities have been tailored towards deepening knowledge on sexual transmission of HIV, increasing uptake of HIV counseling and testing, promoting delayed sexual debut, sensitising the public, especially the youth, on correct and consistent use of condoms, and increasing demand for the utilisation of treatment service.

Besides the training of community-based condom distributors, in-school and out-of-school peer educators, and sensitising organised groups such as artisans, hairdressers associations, seamstress and dressmakers associations, keep fit clubs on HIV /AIDS, GLOMEF has distributed 25,510 condoms.

A series of competitive quizzes on HIV/AIDS has also been organised among some basic schools in the Sunyani West District.