Despite efforts by authorities and opinion leaders to fight substance abuse amongst the youth in various communities in the Upper East Region, records of drug addiction amongst the youth are ever increasing.
It is against this background that some tertiary graduates from the Pungu community of the Kassena-Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region have organised a seminar for basic schools pupils and senior high students to educate them on the dangers of substance abuse.
The graduates who prefer to be referred to as Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Pungu, deemed it necessary to sensitize the youth and empower some of them to serve as peer educators in the community, as there are increasing cases of drug addicts and the negative effects are hindering their growth and development.
In an interview, Punguyere Francis, Chairperson of the group, explained that the high incidence of substance abuse amongst youth in the community, is as a result of low public education and lack of collective efforts from stakeholders to fight it.
“Substance abuse has a lot of health implications on it users. Most often than not, mental health conditions suffered by individuals are as results of abuses of one substance to the other. It brings a lot of social vices such as thievery, armed robbery, murder and prostitution amongst others to these individuals.” He explained.
He also added that many basic schools pupils and for that matter youth living in the community also have less knowledge on safe sex and reproduction, as well as family life education.
The graduates, however encouraged parents and guardians to be interested in their children’s development, as that will go a long way in bringing progress and development to the community.
Meanwhile, Physician Assistant at the Zebilla Hospital in the Bawku West District, Adidam Adaba, also explained the importance of educating the youth especially the adolescent girls on the dangers of sex and how they can protect themselves in the event that they become victims or happen to be in danger.
He however encouraged mothers to always be open and ready to educate their daughters on the dangers of sex especially when their children have reached the ages of 13 and 16 years.
“…that is when they need more education as they often want to practice and if they lack the education, that is when they will become vulnerable to all kinds of sex.” He added.
Source: A1radioonline.com | Moses Apiah | Ghana
