PAYDP impacting lives of adolescent girls

Director for Purim African Youth Development Platform, (PAYDP) Rev. Aku Xornam Adzraku-Kevi has said the Adolescent Girls Programme had impacted positively on the lives of many adolescent girls in Ghana.

Speaking at the Inception and Impact Session with stakeholders, she said about 93,149 adolescents between the ages of 10 to 19 years were reached, and 10,170 women above 20 years were reached including 8,189 men and boys.

According to her, the programme had transformed the lives of girls to make decisions to go back to school and encouraged others to avoid teenage pregnancy while others with children were encouraged not to engage in unprotected sex that could lead to another pregnancy.

She added that some have secured jobs while others producing products learnt from the training under the livelihood empowerment skills called 'project inspire'.

"So for us looking at teenage pregnancy, we have realized that in the community there had been a lot of improvement among these girls. There has been a lot of transformation and we have had some of the girls go back to school even to the university level," Mrs Xornam said.

Chief of Kaneshie, Nii Nikei Ashley, also a stakeholder in an interview said his area had benefitted significantly from the programme.

He noted that prior to the coming of the programme teenage pregnancy was on the rise, adding that "...I could say that over 80% of adolescent girls before 19 years had either given birth to one or two in the community, but things have changed after educating and exposing them to the effect of forcibly having sex both under the law and the diseases that comes with it."

Seidu Rasilla, a beneficiary of the programme, said she was once a street hawker selling ice water and mangoes until her encounter with PAYDP.

"In 2019 I got the chance to meet PAYDP and through their support am now at St. Louis College of Education level 300 students offering degree in education," she noted.

Rasilla noted that she had to hawk to support her mother and herself to enable her further her education.

"I completed SHS in 2019, and my mum advised I start selling something but I told her I wanted to go to school so we planned to go and see an uncle of mine so I went to his place to explain to him but during the period he wanted to use that opportunity to take advantage of me but I escaped," she narrated. "My income couldn't support my education but I'm very delighted because I met PAYDP."

The project with funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations for Children's Fund (UNICEF), was under four thematic areas including Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV), Legal Literacy to girls and Livelihood Empowerment Skills.