NYA engages youth on menace of teenage pregnancies

The Western Regional office of the National Youth Authority has organised a training workshop for selected youth activists across the region on the socio-economic effects teenage pregnancy has on society and the individual.

"Teenage pregnancies do not only delay the fortunes of the girl child, but also serves as a barrier in achieving future desired lifestyle," the workshop noted.

The workshop, with support from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) therefore targeted youth from the various Districts in the Region to educate them to enable them to make informed choices and serve as peer educators.

Mr. Edwin Amponsah, Regional Director of the National Youth Authority, addressing the participants, said the youth often relate well with their peers, hence the focus on them to serve as conduit to deal with the menace of teenage pregnancies.

The situation, he said, was cardinal in perpetuating poverty and eroding the quest for the general empowerment agenda of womanhood.

Ms Mavis Appiah, a Health Facilitator, said the transition in adolescence brought in its wake fascinating emotional and psychological thrillers which required the right knowledge to overcome.

She therefore charged parents and society in general not to overlook the responsibility of helping the youth at that crossroad.

Ms Setina Aboagye, from Domestic Violence and Victim Support (DOVVSU) said laws were available to protect the individual from abuses.

"When you are harassed wrongly by the opposite sex without consent, you can always report to institutions responsible for such incidents such as DOVVSU and CHRAJ," she said.

Mr Nelson Owusu Ansah, Deputy CEO of the National Youth Authority, who graced the occasion, said the fast-growing rate of teenage pregnancies has become a huge worry for the Government, Law Makers and Programmes and Policy Implementers in finding ways and means of eradicating the problem.

" Though teenage pregnancy is a health issue, today it is more than just a health issue, rather a developmental problem because these young ones who are vulnerable are being taken advantage of by elderly men in society who are supposed to protect young ones," he added.