Bosome Freho records higher teenage pregnancies

The Bosome Freho District Directorate of Health Services has consistently recorded higher teenage pregnancy incidences in the communities, over the past five years.

Mr Clement Nti Boateng, District Director of Health Services who stated this, said the incidence represented between 17-20 per cent of teenage pregnancies recorded annually, within the period under review.

Speaking at a community outreach education campaign on sexuality at Asiwa, he said the increasing trend in the District, was a source of worry to health workers.

He said the District Directorate would support initiatives by NGOs and other key stakeholders to undertake comprehensive community education programmes, to help reduce this.

The programme was organized by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), as part of the “Comprehensive Sexuality Education” programme, which started in 2017.

It was aimed at providing adequate education on sexuality, gender-based violence prevention and help stem teenage pregnancies in some selected Districts in the Central, Western, Volta and Ashanti Regions.

Mr Boateng said the District Health Directorate, was doing its best to improve on maternal, newborn and child health care, and stressed the need for all stakeholders to work together to address issues facing health care delivery in the District.

Ms. Doris Ampong, Communication Officer of ARHR, said the outreach education campaign was to empower teenage girls in the communities with adequate knowledge on their sexuality and reproductive health.

She said adolescent girls needed timely and accurate information to make informed choices on their reproductive health and take actions that could help curb unwanted pregnancies.

Ms. Ampong mentioned Nsuaem No.2, Tebeso No.2, Anyanso, Asiwa and Fereso, as the communities in the Bosome Freho District, which were going to benefit from the intervention programme, being funded by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

She said peer-educator groups would be established in their communities to teach their own peers on how to be assertive, self-confident and knowledgeable about their sexuality.