Teenage girls trading sex for fish

Some teenagers in fishing communities in the Central region are reported to be trading sex for fish.

The situation, among others, is affecting efforts aimed at fighting teenage pregnancy.

Statistics available indicate that in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) municipality alone, 497 teenagers got pregnant between January and September this year.

Also, in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district, 280 teenage girls were recorded pregnant by health facilities in the district for the first half of 2017.

Contributors at a forum on teenage pregnancy in Cape Coast, said teenagers were doing all including exchanging sex for fish from fishermen to sell to augment family incomes and make ends meet.

The forum was organised by the Ghana Health Service with support from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) to empower queen mothers to help fight the scourge of teenage pregnancy in the region.

The forum observed that poverty levels were high in fishing and rural communities, and needed urgent and workable solutions to help provide relief for the most vulnerable in these communities.

About 40 queens from the KEEA and Abura Asebu Kwamankese districts attended the one-day forum to deliberate on issues affecting young people, particularly girls for better lives.

District Director of Nursing Services for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo- Abirem Municipality, Mrs. Juliana Armah, said some of the teenagers were dropouts from a poor background or broken homes.

She therefore called for a concerted effort to help end the menace as it is destroying the future of teenage girls in the area.

Parents, especially she said must be proactive in supplying the needs of their wards as their failure in doing so is causing the teenage girls to resort to other negative means including exchanging their bodies for fish in order to meet their pressing needs.

She said such young pregnant girls were usually anaemic and suffered complications during birth.