Nana Abena Kunadjoa II Foundation has launched a five-year project dubbed: ‘Teenage Pregnancy Prevention’ to curb the menace in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality in the Western Region.
Women groups, organisations, queen mothers, as well as school children who joined the programme, discussed some of the challenges faced by the teenagers, and why teenage pregnancy is on the ascendency in the area.
Nana Abena Kunadjoa II, Queenmother of Wassa Fiase and Founder of the organization, in an interview with the media, encouraged parents to ensure good communication with their children periodically, especially the girl-child, to know their challenges.
“During a conversation with most of the teenagers in some of the communities, one particular issue that popped up was that most of them confined in their friends rather than their mothers. They complained that mothers are always busy going about their duties and hardly get time to have a conversation with them,” she said.
This, she noted, does not augur well for their development, saying: “There are some girls who got pregnant and their mothers had no knowledge about it until they got to the hospital or someone informed them.
“As women, let us have time for our girl-child, train them properly to become responsible than leaving them in the hands of unscrupulous boys and men who do not want anything meaningful in their life than sex, which leads to pregnancy,” she added.
Madam Efua Nyinaku, Girl-Child Officer at Tarkwa Nsuaem, encouraged parents to discuss sex education with the girl-child.
“If you are able to do that, no boy or man can deceive her nor lure her for sex, to become pregnant at a tender age,” she said.
She advised the school children to concentrate on their studies and not to involve themselves in sexual activities at a tender age. This, she said, can destroy their future, lead to sexually transmitted infections, and then school dropout.
