Parents urged to educate their children on sex

Accra, Oct. 24, GNA - Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, on Friday urged parents and guardians to take up the responsibilities of educating their children on sex. He said this would enable them to make informed choices about sex in this era of HIV/AIDS.

Prof. Amoa said this at the 10th anniversary of Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana Chapter, established in 1993 to increase female participation in education at all levels of the education cycle.

He said it was unfortunate that some parents in this era cannot talk about sex with their children, especially the girl- child. Prof. Amoa noted that women (adolescent girls) and children are the most vulnerable group of HIV/AIDS, adding that HIV/AIDS is preventable and educating such target groups would enable them to make informed choices and avoid being infected with the virus.

He suggested that FAWE concentrates on educating both boys and girls since men are the drivers of the disease and studies have shown that they have little knowledge about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues.

Mrs Camilla Haladane-Lutterodt, Chairperson of FAWE-Ghana, said FAWE, within its 10 years of establishment have forged ahead to blaze a trail to create a more enabling environment for the girl-child to enrol, remain and perform in school.

She said FAWE, working in 27 districts in all the ten regions, have trained almost 200 per educators in girl-child and HIV/AIDS.

It had also, among many achievements, established scholarship schemes for brilliant but needy girls to alleviate parental poverty. "We established resource centres and community libraries to provide a conducive environment for girls to study and improve themselves".

Mrs Haladane-Lutterodt, called on partners and stakeholders to go the extra mile with FAWE in mobilizing more concrete actions in the support of the education of girls for their development.

Two books, a newsletter and a teaching manual for adolescent reproductive health /HIV/AIDS and a website were launched at the anniversary.