The incidence of teenage pregnancies in the Bongo District of Upper East Region can be attributed to some forms of outmoded cultural practices.
A practice such as teenagers engaging in relationships with family relatives in the district is accepted but same lovers cannot marry. This, eventually leads to unwanted pregnancies among adolescents.
Bongo District Field Assistant for Girls Empowerment Project of Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), Adam Azabre Abugbila revealed this exclusively to A1 News.
“When we went to do this ‘Breaking the Silence’, we realized that, some communities encourage teenagers to be friend to somebody who is a brother or sister. So girls that are not enlighten are engaged in this ‘Tazaba’ thing and get impregnated. And the guys sometimes have to run away from their responsibilities because they feel the child doesn’t belong to them. So if they can abolish it, teenage pregnancies can be curtailed somehow”, he stated.
Mr. Abugbila who said this during an orientation for about 20 adolescent mothers in the district called on traditional authorities to help abolished some of the outmoded cultural practices which he said hinder the education of the girl-child
Senior Staff Midwife of Anafobisi Health Center, Samantha Adogbongo also attributed some social activities such as funerals to the increasing spate of teenage pregnancies in the district.
“Where there are funerals being performed, girls follow boys who cannot marry them. When you take about 90 percent of the adolescent girls who became pregnant, it is boys who cannot marry them are those who impregnated them”, she expressed worry.
Madam Adogbongo who took the adolescent mothers through antenatal and postnatal care education encouraged them to further their education or venture into vocations in order to cater for their children.
PPAG with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) during the day meeting in the district, donated to the teenage mothers with items such as soap, washing powder and baby diapers. The initiative gears towards aiding the country to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Source:A1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah
