Plan Ghana and ICDP embark on advocacy against teenage pregnancy

Two Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), Plan International, Ghana and its implementing partner, International Child Development Programme (ICDP) are collaborating to undertake a vigorous campaign to help reduce teenage pregnancy in some communities in the Akuapem North Municipality.

The two organisations have partnered with state institutions such as Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), Social Welfare Department in the Municipality and a committee formed by Plan Ghana within the localities, Child Protection Committees to embark on community sensitisation drive.

The programme, dubbed, “Girls Advocacy Alliance Project”, is a Plan International Ghana’s initiative started in 2016 and expected to end in 2019 with funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project seeks to educate every child especially the girls and empower them to see the importance of education and adopt lifestyles that would protect them against teenage pregnancy.

The Project Manager of Girls Advocacy Alliance and Plan International Ghana, Ms Anna Nabere said they wanted to ensure that by 2019 and beyond, teenage pregnancy was eliminated or drastically reduced in the communities where they would be working.

She said the project had revealed that, men who impregnate the young girls do not assume responsibility of the pregnancies, leaving the burden on the girls and their families.

Ms Nabere said some of the girls out of ignorance and poverty as well as peer pressure, are pushed into such situations.

This she believed with intensive education in the localities would help to enlighten parents and young girls to understand their respective roles to address the menace.

The Country Director of ICDP, Mrs Joyce Dodzi Larnyoh said within the past three years, the project had identified cases of child marriages and child neglect.

A Champion of Change in the Child Protection Committee at Baware, Mr Samuel Mintah, said since the project was introduced some years ago in their community, it has helped reduce teenage pregnancy.

He said, the committee still continued to engage parents and young girls through different forms to educate them to understand their respective roles to avoid teenage pregnancy.

Three teenage girls who had delivered and one other, yet to deliver, had been identified through the project in two communities, Baware and Kwamoso and had been offered support.

The girls who spoke on anonymity advised their peers not to engage in early sexual relationship, urged them to avoid men who lure them with money and called on teenagers to obey the advices of their parents.