Eastern Region moves to tackle teenage pregnancy

The Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) is mobilizing resources to tackle high rate of teenage pregnancies and other adolescent health issues to protect girl-child education.

The RCC, as part of the mobilization, has tabled a proposal to collaborate with queen mothers, health service providers and the Girl Child Education Unit of Ghana Education Service (GES) to stage a massive campaign against teenage pregnancy in the region.

According to Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong, the Deputy Regional Minister, the RCC would use three approaches and these are community sensitisation by queen mothers, community health service providers and women role models in the campaign.

She said the queen mothers would be empowered to sensitise and create awareness on teenage pregnancies.

The outreach health programmes would provide adolescents reproductive health need and the role models would share life experiences with the girls in their communities at special fora to influence their education.

Briefing the Ghana News Agency(GNA) following a GNA publication that over 13,000 girls between the ages of 12 and 15 years got pregnant in the region in 2013, the Deputy Minster said if care was not taken,  efforts in promoting the girl child education in the region would come to naught.

She said in line with the government’s policy on girl child education especially on retention, the RCC would implement the project on pilot basis in five  districts that recorded high rates of the teenage pregnancies for a period of two years.

Ms Frimpong said within the two years, the expected outcomes of the project would determine the expansion and sustainability and called on organisations and all stakeholders to support the RCC to halt the negative trend in the region.

Source: GNA