5-year plan to curb teenage pregnancy underway – Cecilia Abena-Dapaah

The Caretaker Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cecilia Abena-Dapaah has said a five-year strategic plan is being implemented by her Ministry to deal with the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy in the Upper East Region.

The five-year strategic plan was launched in 2018-2020.

According to the Care-taker Minister, the Gender Ministry is not ignorant of the high rate of teenage pregnancy rate in the Upper East Region.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, 2 March 2022, Ms Dapaah said: “The Ministry is fully aware of the situation in the Upper East Region, and is implementing a five-year-strategic plan to address adolescent pregnancy in Ghana and this was launched in 2018 to 2020.”

The Caretaker Minister noted that the strategic plan is to remedy the situation.

She also revealed that the Ministry together with stakeholders undertook some initiatives to reduce the phenomenon.

“We formed parent advocacy groups and trained parents as advocates to support the sensitisation drive on preventing adolescent pregnancies. Formed the regional child protection committee which meets quarterly to deliberate on interventions by various stakeholders in preventing adolescent pregnancies.

“We engaged traditional leaders in the districts on how to create awareness on sexual and gender-based violence including abstinence among adolescent, to curb adolescent pregnancies. We trained Queen mothers in mentoring adolescent girls on sexual and reproductive health rights, sex education and abstinence. these queen mothers serve as mentors to the adolescent youth.

“We also engaged the public through radio discussions, on issues around adolescent pregnancy. We also embarked on school outreach programmes to educate pupils and students on their sexual and reproductive health rights,” the Caretaker Minister explained.

The Caretaker Minister, however, indicated that some of the girls are lured, while others are defiled sometimes by people they know resulting in teenage pregnancy.

She noted that at the end of the day, people still lure the girls, despited programmes by NGOs and other agencies who supply sanitary pads to them.

“Left to the purchasing and supplying of sanitary pads alone, I don’t think the girls will be going in for these illicit sex,” the Minister added.

Source: classfmonline.com