A District Public Health Nurse at the Kassena Nankana West District, Francis Adipare, has bemoaned that poor parenting is slowing down the fight against teenage pregnancies in the area. Additionally, the interference by some opinion leaders in prosecuting culprits is thwarting the efforts of stakeholders.
According to Mr. Adipare, the inability of some parents to fend for their wards, coupled with the lack of control and the interference by some opinion leaders in the prosecution of individuals involved in defilement cases, is drawing back the fight against the menace.
“One of the things that is not helping us is parenting. In some of the engagements we had with both adolescents and their parents, you notice that the parents in some rural parts of the district are of the opinion that they have lost control over the children and sometimes are not also able to meet the basic needs of the children.”
This, he noted, creates room for some predatory men to take advantage of the situation and end up having sexual affairs with these teenagers.
He revealed this when he spoke to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper East Show regarding cases of teenage pregnancies in the Kassena Nankana West District.
The public health nurse said though there has been some improvement compared with last year’s data, the progress made is still above the national target.
“Teenage pregnancy is a bit high for our likeness as a District because we are doing above the national target and we are currently at half a year, and 15.4 percent of all pregnancies that have been reported to our facilities are within the ages of 10 to 19,” he stated.
“If you look at this 15.4 percent, that translates to about 220 girls getting pregnant, and mine you these are just those that reported for antenatal care, which means they wanted to keep the pregnancies,” he added.
He noted that as of June 2022, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies stood at 17.7 percent but that has dropped to 15.4 percent within the same period this year. This, he said, gives an indication that some of the interventions the Ghana Health Service took with its partners to tackle the menace are yielding some results.
He said the Ghana Health Service, in collaboration with other stakeholders, has initiated adolescent health clubs in and out of schools to sensitise teenagers about their health.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
