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15.04.2014 Health

GLOMEF Secures $127,749 for Safe Abortion

By Daily Guide
GLOMEF Secures 127,749 for Safe Abortion
15.04.2014 LISTEN

Raphael Godlove Ahenu Junior, CEO of GLOMEF
THE GLOBAL Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a civil society organisation, has secured a $127,749.31 donor fund to embark on a campaign on safe abortion and access to contraceptive services in Ghana among young women.

The campaign, dubbed: 'Advocating for Young Women Access to Safe Abortion and Contraceptive Services in Ghana', is a three-year project lasting between April 2014 and March 2017, which would be implemented in 21 communities and 14 junior and senior high schools in seven municipal and districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Addressing the media in Sunyani recently, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GLOMEF, Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jnr, said the project seeks to increase awareness among young people both in and out-of-school and advocate for access to safe abortion and contraceptive services through the media in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The beneficiaries are Sunyani, Kintampo North, Techiman, Wenchi, Dormaa Central Municipalities and the Jaman South and Tano North Districts.

Mr Ahenu Jnr explained that thousands of women die each year in Ghana because of unsafe abortion and abortion-related deaths contributing significantly to the high rates of maternal mortality in the country.

He disclosed that the 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey showed that maternal mortality is still unacceptably high and is the second largest cause of female death.

Available statistics also shows that unsafe abortions accounts for 15 percent of maternal deaths in Ghana, and also accounts for 25 to 30 percent of maternal deaths in leading teaching hospitals in the country.

'It is against this background that Global Media Foundation with support from Safe Abortion Fund (IPPF) is implementing this project,' Mr Ahenu Jnr stated.

The project objectives, the CEO said, is to among other things increase access to safe abortion related services through information dissemination and strengthened referral linkages with government hospitals and other service providers for 500 young women in the region by 2016.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that worldwide 210 million women become pregnant each year and that about two-thirds of them, or approximately 133 million, deliver live infants. The remaining one-third of pregnancies, about 78 million, ends in miscarriage, stillbirth, or induced abortion.

According to the WHO, of the estimated 46 million induced abortions each year, nearly 19 million are performed in unsafe conditions and or by unskilled providers and result in the deaths of an estimated 68,000 girls and women, representing about 13 percent of all pregnancy-related deaths.

FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani
 

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